Spartans wrap up regular season in October

The Mountain Brook High School football team wraps up the regular season in October. The month features four games in four weeks for the Spartans, three of them Class 6A, Region 5 games and three of them on the road as well.

Mountain Brook comes off its open date with a trip to Parker on Oct. 6, the fourth of five Thursday night games for the Spartans this season. Mountain Brook and Parker haven’t played in nearly a decade, but the Spartans have won each of the previous five meetings between the two schools.

The Spartans and Thundering Herd were region opponents in 2000 and 2001, with Mountain Brook winning both of those meetings. The teams squared off once again in the 2002 playoffs, before playing once again in the regular season in 2012 and 2013.

Parker has spent the last four years in Class 5A before ascending to 6A this fall in the latest round of Alabama High School Athletic Association reclassification.

Mountain Brook then heads to Mortimer Jordan on Oct. 14 for another Region 5 contest. The two teams have never met on the field, but the Blue Devils were once a proud 5A program. From 2014 to 2019, Mortimer Jordan won at least 10 games in five of those six seasons, reaching the state championship game once and the semifinals two other times.

But with a move up to 6A and a couple coaching changes, Mortimer Jordan combined to win just three games over the last two seasons.

The Spartans wrap up region play at home Oct. 21 against Gardendale, in a game that could very well decide the region title. Gardendale has been successful in recent years and gave the Spartans all they asked for in the two most recent meetings. The Spartans and Rockets faced off in the second round of the playoffs in 2020, with Mountain Brook winning 6-0. The Spartans won 13-10 in overtime in the regular season finale in 2019 as well.

Mountain Brook has a 10-5 edge in a series that dates all the way back to 1966.

Mountain Brook concludes the regular season on Thursday, Oct. 27, with a trip to Baker in Mobile. The two teams have never met on the field, but it marks the end of a non-region slate for Mountain Brook that includes four 7A teams.

Baker has been a middling program in recent years, averaging just over five wins per season over the last seven years. The Hornets have qualified for the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, however.

Assuming things go according to plan for the Spartans, they will be looking to make the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season. Mountain Brook is in its third season back in 6A, having advanced to the state semifinals each of the last two years.