Sarah Finnegan
Hoover AT Thompson Football Round 4 Playoffs
Hoover players, cheerleaders and fan sing the alma mater after Hoover's win over Thompson on November 24, 2017 at Larry Simmons Stadium in Alabaster, Al.
The stage is set once again.
For the second consecutive season, the Hoover High School football team will face McGill-Toolen in the Class 7A championship game. This year’s title match is set for Wednesday, Dec. 6, at 7 p.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.
The rematch was far from a foregone conclusion, but both teams took similar paths to arrive back at the same destination.
Hoover (10-3) faced back-to-back unbeaten teams in the quarterfinals and semifinals and conquered both. The Bucs took down Hewitt-Trussville, 56-21, in the quarters, before avenging its only Region 3 loss, to Thompson. Hoover jumped out to a 24-0 lead against the Warriors and cruised to a 31-12 victory to seal its spot in the state championship game for the 16th time in 18 years.
McGill-Toolen (13-0) has no blemish on its record but never climbed higher than No. 4 in the Alabama Sports Writers Association poll this fall. The Yellow Jackets were not viewed as favorably as last year, when star quarterback Bubba Thompson put up eye-popping displays on the field each week.
They also had to go through Central-Phenix City, who held the No. 1 spot from the first game on. McGill defeated Auburn, a team that had only lost to Central, 31-13 in the quarterfinals, and pulled out a thrilling overtime victory, 27-26, over Central in the semifinals. The teams exchanged touchdowns in the overtime period, but McGill blocked Central’s extra-point attempt to send the Yellow Jackets back to the title game.
Last year’s game between the two squads was controlled by the Bucs. Hoover used a swarming defense that held 10 opponents to single digits to keep McGill and its quarterback at bay much of the evening, only allowing a touchdown after the game was essentially decided and winning, 17-7.
Barret Pickering got Hoover on the board early with a field goal, and C.J. Sturdivant scored a 2-yard touchdown to give the Bucs a 10-0 lead at the half. They would extend that lead on the first drive of the third quarter, as Sturdivant scored again to make it 17-0.
This year, the Bucs have paired Pickering — now a senior, one of the state’s top kickers and a Nebraska commit — with Will Reichard, a junior punter with offers from the likes of LSU and Oklahoma. Reichard executed a fake punt to perfection in the win over Thompson. Together, the two have made Hoover’s special teams unit (head coach Josh Niblett affectionately refers to it as ‘we-fense’) one of the best in the state.
While Hoover’s defense hasn’t been quite as dominant as the 2016 version, it has still held six opponents to seven points or less and made life miserable for Thompson quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa in the semifinals. Tagovailoa has been lauded by many area coaches as one of the best high school quarterbacks in recent memory, and Hoover held him to 20-of-41 passing for 191 yards.
McGill’s defense has certainly been no slouch either, as the Yellow Jackets have surrendered fewer than 11 points per contest, including a stretch in the regular season when they pitched a pair of shutouts and held five straight opponents to single digits.
Quarterback Jalen Parker, a senior looking to go out on top in his one year as the starter, leads Hoover’s offense. The backfield trio of Larry McCammon, Vonte’ Brackett and Jacquez Allen has torched many defenses this fall, and the future Auburn University tandem of George Pickens and Shedrick Jackson on the outside has wreaked havoc on opposing teams as well.
McGill-Toolen has a new head coach this year in Earnest Hill, who was promoted from defensive coordinator after Caleb Ross accepted the head coaching job at Opelika following last season.
A win Wednesday would give Josh Niblett his sixth state title in 10 seasons at the helm of the Hoover program. After winning one in his first four years, the Bucs have won four in the last five years. The only other team to win a title in the state’s highest classification in that span is McGill-Toolen, which beat Spain Park to win it in 2015.
Wednesday's pregame walk of champions is slated for 5:15 p.m. Tickets for the game cost $12 in advance and $15 at the gate. For more information, visit super7al.com.
