Spartans stumble in loss to Ramsay
BIRMINGHAM – The scoreboard didn’t work on Thursday night at Lawson Field, but that was the least of the Mountain Brook High School football team’s problems.
All three facets of the game were controlled by Ramsay, which coasted to a 28-7 win over the Spartans in the final tune-up before the state playoffs for both sides.
“They just played a great game,” said Mountain Brook head coach Chris Yeager. “They outcoached us. I take responsibility. Our kids weren’t as ready as I wanted them to be, and that’s my fault.”
A pair of special teams breakdowns provided the Rams with all they needed. Ramsay pulled off a punt return in the first quarter and a kickoff return in the third quarter to account for half of the Rams points in the game.
Mountain Brook (7-3) punted it away on each of its first two possessions, the second of which Ramsay’s Terrell Gardner hauled in and won a foot race to and down the Rams sideline. He bolted 65 yards to give the Rams a 6-0 lead midway through the opening period.
Things got worse on the opening kickoff of the third quarter, when Gardner struck again. The Rams received it near the goal line and ran it out to the 20-yard line, where Gardner received a lateral and reversed field. He took it the rest of the way for his second return touchdown of the evening, giving Ramsay a 21-0 lead and squelching any momentum Mountain Brook wanted to establish coming out of the locker room.
Ramsay (6-4) took a 14-0 lead into the half after a plodding 17-play drive in the second quarter. The Rams converted three third downs on the possession, including Isaiah Bradford’s backbreaking 17-yard scramble on third-and-16. Kobe Belcher punched it in from two yards out for the score.
Belcher was the bell cow for the Rams, finishing with 23 carries and 84 yards. He added an 11-yard touchdown in the third quarter to put Ramsay up 28-0.
Mountain Brook’s offense mustered just 41 yards in the first half, and AJ Gates’ 52-yard touchdown run late in the contest was all the Spartans came up with. Gates had 99 yards on 13 carries.
Hamp Sisson completed 9-of-23 passes on the evening for 67 yards. Hamp Greene had five grabs for 31 yards. Mountain Brook’s offense was 0-for-4 on fourth-down attempts.
The loss was certainly disappointing for Mountain Brook, the No. 3 seed from Class 7A, Region 3. The Spartans will play at Bob Jones in the first round of the state playoffs next week, but Yeager was anything but downtrodden afterwards, citing the team on the opposite sideline.
“Last year, we beat (Ramsay), and they were where we are now, and they came back and won the state championship,” Yeager said. “What they did is they erased all that and played forward. What we’ve got to do is load it up and go.”