Spartans run wild in region win
BIRMINGHAM – Mountain Brook High School football coach Chris Yeager has been looking to see some explosive plays from his offense.
He got plenty of them Thursday night.
The Spartans scored five rushing touchdowns in the first quarter and cruised to a 51-0 win over Woodlawn in a Class 6A, Region 5 contest at Woodlawn High’s newly christened on-campus stadium.
“We’ve been hoping we can get some explosive plays going, and I’m glad we were able to do that,” Yeager said following the game. “The running backs ran well and the line blocked.”
Running backs Cole Gamble and Jack King did all of their damage with efficiency rarely seen in football, combining to score five times on a total of seven carries. Gamble had scoring plays of 51, 70 and 5 yards. King scored on bursts of 15 and 41 yards.
That was pretty much all that duo needed to do Thursday. Gamble had 4 carries for 131 yards, while King finished with just 3 carries for 78 yards.
Stuart Andrews added 41 yards on 11 carries and scored on a 13-yard run in the second quarter to give the Spartans a 42-0 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Hudson Young caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from John Cooper, who finished 7-of-11 for 92 yards. Young had 40 yards on 3 grabs, while Clark Sanderson had a pair of catches for 32 yards.
Joseph Green tackled a Woodlawn ballcarrier in the end zone in the middle of the fourth quarter to make it 51-0.
“Lot of good things. Got to play a lot of good young guys,” Yeager said. “That was one of the biggest things, too, we wanted to get quality reps. [Woodlawn] gave us quality reps, they fought their guts out ‘til the end. They didn’t roll over.”
Yeager praised the work of the offensive line despite missing two starters, singling out Henry Gimenez for stepping in and playing a solid game for the injured William Courtenay.
Mountain Brook’s defense held Woodlawn to 133 total yards and pinned the Colonels in their own territory much of the evening. They forced three turnovers in the first quarter, as William Grier McDuffie, Clyde Beavers and Webb Walker recovered fumbles.
Harris Crumpton ended Woodlawn’s best drive of the night — a 14-play drive in the second quarter — with an interception near the end zone.
Green picked up two sacks, one in the third quarter and the one in the fourth that put points on the board.
Cornealius Hudson and Arthurius Hampton split time at quarterback for Woodlawn, combining to complete 12 passes for 60 yards. Hudson was the team’s leading rusher with 45 yards on 8 carries, while Mikel Jackson had 10 rushes for 41 yarsd. Kharon Lewis caught 7 passes for 43 yards.
Mountain Brook is now 2-0 in region play and hosts Jackson-Olin next Friday. Woodlawn heads to Mortimer Jordan next week to continue region play as well.
Check out all of our high school football photos from this week.