Bucs cruise past Jaguars in family feud
The Spain Park Jaguars hadn’t beaten their big brother on the football field in 12 meetings.
Make it 13.
The Hoover Buccaneers used an explosive stretch late in the first quarter and early in the second quarter to build a three-touchdown lead and that was enough to put little brother in his place as the top-ranked Bucs beat the 10th-ranked Jags 42-14 Thursday night at Jaguar Stadium.
The Bucs improved to 4-2 overall and 4-0 in Class 7A, Region 3. The Jags fell to 3-3, 1-3.
“We didn’t play very good tonight,” winning coach Josh Niblett said. “We were sloppy at times. We made plays when we had to make plays, but we’ve just got to do a better job of just getting out of our own way, especially on the offensive side of the ball.”
Early, it was shaping up to be a defensive struggle that would benefit Spain Park’s grinding ground game and physical defense. Each team had but one first down until Hoover’s third possession, which was set up by a good punt return by Trae Anderson to midfield. A 27-yard run by Bradrick Shaw moved the ball deep into Jaguar territory, leading to a 5-yard touchdown pass from Jack Hutcheson to Trey Brackett. The extra point made it 7-0, Bucs, with 6 seconds left in the quarter.
After a quick three-and-out, a short punt gave the Bucs excellent field position at the Jags’ 46. Hutcheson hooked up for a 42-yard gainer with Alex Elam and Shaw took it the final 4 yards for a 14-0 lead with 9:59 left in the half.
On the next possession, Jags quarterback Mason Duke was picked off by Jeremy Williams, who raced 33 yards into the end zone for a 21-0 lead with 9:12 left in the half.
“We talked all week it,” said Spain Park coach Shawn Raney. “Score on special teams or something, you look up and it’s 21-0. It’s something we knew we needed to avoid and we didn’t avoid it. We got behind and it was over.”
Spain Park showed its toughness by taking the kickoff and driving 80 yards to its first score, a 29-yard pass from Duke to Trey Harper, to cut the margin to 21-7 with 6:29 in the half. It looked like the Jags might steal the momentum, stopping the Bucs on downs deep in their own territory, but Spain Park couldn’t make a first down and the Bucs struck with a 56-yard scoring pass from Hutcheson to Quincy Cox in the final seconds of the half for a 28-7 lead.
In the second half, the Jags made some big plays on defense – including interceptions by Anthony Smiley and Michael Jackson -- but couldn’t sustain anything offensively, despite some hard running from Wade Streeter and Larry Wooden.
After a scoreless third quarter, Shaw scored on a 10-yard run and Chris Vacarella cruised 50 yards around end for Bucs scores. The Jags’ final score came on a 2-yard run by Wooden with 2:48 to go.
“We had too many busts in the secondary,” Raney said. “We can’t give up plays like that against them. I thought our kids played hard but we talked all week about that and the execution against a team like that. I thought we had the effort but not the execution. You don’t have a chance if you don’t do both of them.”
For the No. 10 Jaguars – who’ve been hanging in the Top 10 despite losses, and now likely will fall out after three straight losses -- it gets interesting. They face Vestavia Hills, surprising Oak Mountain and Mountain Brook to close region play before taking on Bessemer City in a nonregion game.
“I think we’re at a crossroads right now,” Raney said bluntly. “We got four games left and we can go one direction or the other, and we’ve got to make that choice. I think we got better the last two weeks with the off week, our practice habits have gotten better. If we take the next four weeks with the same we can have some success.”
The Bucs’ Niblett said the off week did help heal some bruises but really thought his team had better practices during the off week than it did during game week.
“We’ve just got to get that sense of urgency we need to reach greatness on every snap,” the Bucs coach said. Hoover has Tuscaloosa County, Vestavia Hills and Hewitt-Trussville remaining in region play before closing with Blackman of Murfreesboro, Tenn., to end the regular season.