Spartans suffer region loss to Thompson
ALABASTER — Tonight’s early deficit for the Mountain Brook High School football team certainly wasn’t unprecedented. It first happened, in fact, a mere seven days ago.
This time, though, the team on the other sideline didn’t cooperate in letting the Spartans back in the game. This time, it was Thompson High keeping the foot on the pedal all the way to the middle of the third quarter and then coasting to a 40-13 win over the visiting Spartans in a Class 7A Region 3 game in front of a full house at Larry Simmons Stadium.
“That happened last week [in a Region 3 loss to Hoover],” Mountain Brook head coach Chris Yeager said when asked about the early deficit. “The thing is, [Thompson] just never let up. The bottom line is they were relentless. [Thompson High head coach Mark Freeman] has a heckuva football team.”
By the end of the first quarter, Thompson High running back Shadrick Byrd already had touchdown runs of 36, 4 and 2 yards and the Warriors enjoyed a 20-0 lead. Stopping the offense, however, was just part of the problem.
Thompson (3-0 overall, 2-1 Region 3) actually set the tone defensively on the first series of the night. Thompson linebacker Jalen Rayam and friends stuffed the Mountain Brook running game on the first three snaps of the game. Mountain Brook running back Harold Joiner carried the ball twice on the possession and gained just one yard.
Unfortunately for the Spartans, that was a sign of things to come. Joiner carried the ball 21 times for 62 yards with only 16 of those yards coming in the first half. Fellow running back A.J. Gates finished with 55 yards on 10 carries with 31 of those yards coming before halftime.
Thompson had no trouble moving the ball on the Mountain Brook defense. The Warriors’ first offensive unit had six drives and each of them finished with a rushing touchdown. Byrd had 164 yards on 15 carries with four touchdowns. His final touchdown — a 60-yard sprint — came on the first play of the second half to extend a 27-0 halftime lead to 34-0.
The Warriors finished with 254 rushing yards on 32 carries. Yeager said that was made possible because of a passing attack that begins with quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa and includes dynamic receivers Ahmad Harris-Edwards and Mo Edwards. Tagovailoa was 15-of-21 for 242 yards and Harris-Edwards grabbed 11 receptions for 164 yards.
“[Tagovailoa] is the real deal,” Yeager said. “You got to make allowances for their quarterbacks and receivers making plays. It’s like having six holes in a bucket and only five fingers. You’re danged if you do, danged if you don’t.”
Mountain Brook (2-2 overall, 0-2 Region 3) scored twice in the fourth quarter. The first came on a pretty 17-yard pass from Hamp Sisson to Clay Stearns. The other came on a 5-yard run by Ben Savage.
The Spartans stay on a difficult path next week with a region matchup with Spain Park. He was asked how his team gets back on track after consecutive losses to Hoover and Thompson.
“We’ve got a tough road,” Yeager said. “We just got to go back to the fundamentals, to me, that’s the first step. And go from there, that’s all we can do.”