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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook linebacker William Grier McDuffie (10) blocks Parker defensive back Na’eem Offord (1) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook defensive lineman Rickey Whitworth (66) reaches out to block Parker defensive back Na’eem Offord (1) on the run in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble (19) returns the ball as Parker defensive back Keshaun Johnson (23) makes the tackle in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook kicker Harrison Fell (36) kicksoff in a game against Parker at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook quarterback John Cooper (11) passes the ball in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook defensive lineman Frank Lee (90) moves to tackle Parker defensive back Na’eem Offord (1) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble (19) runs the ball in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook defensive lineman Frank Lee (90) moves to tackle Parker defensive back Na’eem Offord (1) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Parker defensive back Na’eem Offord (1) is tackled by the Mountain Brook defense in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook kicker Harrison Fell (36) kicks a field goal in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble (19) is tackled by the Parker defense in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook quarterback John Cooper (11) passes the ball in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook defensive back Hampton King (38) and Mountain Brook defensive back Harris Crumpton (27) tackle Parker running back Martavius Purnell (7) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook defensive back Hampton King (38) and Mountain Brook defensive back Harris Crumpton (27) tackle Parker running back Martavius Purnell (7) as Mountain Brook defensive back Clyde Beavers (20) recovers the ball in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook defensive back Hampton King (38) and Mountain Brook defensive back Harris Crumpton (27) tackle Parker running back Martavius Purnell (7) as Mountain Brook defensive back Clyde Beavers (20) recovers the ball in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook quarterback John Cooper (11) looks to pass the ball in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook quarterback John Cooper (11) is tackled by Parker defensive end Phillip Davison (5) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble (19) catches the punt in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble (19) is tackled by the Parker defense in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble (19) carries the ball downfield in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble (19) carries the ball downfield in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook kicker Harrison Fell (36) kicks a field goal in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble (19) carries the ball in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook linebacker William Grier McDuffie (10) moves in to tackle Parker running back Na’eem Offord (1) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook offensive lineman Watts Alexander (61) and Mountain Brook tight end JC Adams (46) block Parker defensive lineman Jeremiah Beaman (9) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook linebacker William Grier McDuffie (10) tackles Parker running back Chancellor Sparks (22) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook linebacker William Grier McDuffie (10) tackles Parker running back Chancellor Sparks (22) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook defensive back Clyde Beavers (20) tackles Parker quarterback Cameron Jennings (18) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook defensive lineman Rickey Whitworth (66) and Mountain Brook linebacker William Grier McDuffie (10) tackle Parker running back Amari Brundidge (33) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook defensive back Harris Crumpton (27) moves in to tackle Parker running back Martavius Purnell (7) in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble (19) runs through a tackle by a Parker defender in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
The Mountain Brook defense keeps Parker defensive lineman Jourdin Crawford (0) from gaining yards in a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. Parker defeated the Spartans 13-10. Photo by Erin Nelson.
MOUNTAIN BROOK – Everyone inside Spartan Stadium was lightly slicked in small beads of a two-hour mist.
Everyone except Parker High School head coach Frank Warren, who was drenched from a Gatorade or water bath as the Class 6A sixth-ranked Thundering Herd came on the road and beat No. 5 Mountain Brook 13-10 on Friday night, locking up the program’s first region championship since 2014, only its fifth in a long school history.
“It feels good to win a region championship,” Warren said of Class 6A, Region 5. “That was our first goal. We’ve got some more goals to go. We’re going to keep that to ourselves.”
Deadlocked 7-7 for much of the game, Mountain Brook (5-2, 3-1 in region) took a 10-7 lead with 7:17 to play in the final quarter on a 34-yard field goal by Harrison Fell. Parker (7-1, 5-0) answered in a big way, marching 80 yards in 17 plays, capped by a Na’eem Offord 1-yard touchdown run with 34 seconds to play. The drive melted nearly seven minutes of clock.
The Spartans returned the ensuing kickoff to their own 36-yard line, completed two passes for 13 yards before their final two pass attempts fell incomplete.
“It’s a great opportunity to learn,” said Mountain Brook head coach Chris Yeager. “It’s a great opportunity to reinforce a lot of the things we teach our kids. Our kids played hard. We had the goal-line stand down here. We played our guts out. We played with our heart, I just don’t know that we really played with our head. We’re better than we played tonight.”
The game’s first touchdown came early in the second quarter when Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble rumbled in from 2 yards out. The Thundering Herd responded with a 17-play, 80-yard drive that ended with an Offord touchdown run from 4 yards out. It was a tough drive for the Spartans, in that they jumped offsides on a fourth-and-3 when Parker had the ball at its own 27-yard line, giving it a first down, and then were offsides again on third-and-3 from their 16-yard line, resulting in another first down. Mountain Brook was called for offsides six times in the game.
“We violated a lot of principles of winning football,” Yeager said. “We extended drives because we lined up offsides. That’s not Mountain Brook football. We had a facemask penalty. We had turnovers. If you’re going to play championship football, there are certain principles, just like there are principles to everything, and if you violate them, you’re going to have a negative outcome. We got the outcome that we really deserved, to be honest with you.”
The game included five turnovers, three of which were committed by Mountain Brook. Quarterback John Cooper was intercepted twice by Carlton Duncan, both on throws into the red zone. Gamble lost a fumble on the second play of the third quarter to Offord. Parker running back Martavius Purnell coughed up the ball three plays later, which Mountain Brook’s Clyde Beavers recovered. Late in the third quarter, in the midst of another clock-bleeding Parker drive, Jourdin Crawford lost a fumble at the Mountain Brook 1-yard line, which was recovered by the Spartans’ Pelham Comer. The Spartans turned their ensuing drive into the field goal that put them up 10-7.
For Parker, quarterback Cameron Jennings filled in for an injured Malik Muhammad and completed 6-of-14 passes for 70 yards. Offord was the story, rushing 16 times for 82 yards and two touchdowns. Purnell finished with 41 yards on 10 carries.
For Mountain Brook, Cooper was 11-of-20 for 89 yards and two interceptions. Gamble had a big night, rushing for 176 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries. He did lose the one fumble. Wide receiver Hudson Young caught three passes for 43 yards.
Mountain Brook stays at home next week and hosts Mortimer Jordan (6-1, 3-1) for the likely No. 2 seed out of the region and homefield advantage in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs.
“The truth is, you can’t go there,” Yeager said. “When you go there, you add the pressure. What you do is you say, ‘It’s the next football game.’ And you play. What’s the worst thing that can happen? We play away [in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs]. But we get to play. No. 1, it’s high school football and it’s an opportunity to learn. We line up and play the very best we can, we play Mountain Brook football, it’ll take care of itself. Tonight, we did not play Mountain Brook football. We played something other than Mountain Brook football tonight.”
