Bucs trounce Tuscaloosa County

NORTHPORT – Five forced turnovers led to 35 points for Hoover as the second-ranked Bucs spoiled Tuscaloosa County’s Homecoming, 62-7, Friday night at Wildcat Stadium.

“We always pride ourselves on playing good defense. We’re ball hogs. We love to get picks. We love to get fumbles,” said Josh Niblett, Hoover head coach. “It’s a credit to the kids too of how hard they work and what they want to accomplish when they come out to play.”

Hoover picked off passes deep in Wildcat territory on each of Tuscaloosa County’s first possessions and followed with touchdowns passes of 12 and 17 yards from Garrett Farquhar to C.J. Sturdivant and Vonte Brackett to take a 14-0 lead. Farquhar finished the night with 115 yards on 14-of-20 passing.

The Bucs’ offense struggled to put together a long scoring drive in the first half. Junior kicker Barret Pickering scored the first six points of the second quarter with field goals of 46 and 49 yards. The second one tied the program record for longest field goal.

“I just went out there and kicked it like all the other field goals. Distance really doesn’t matter. They’re all the same kicks,” said Pickering.

He also boomed kicks all night for touchbacks, had a 45-yard punt and was 8-for-8 on PATs.

Chase Brown followed the second field goal by one-handing a line-drive pass for a 12-yard pick-six to make it 27-0 with 7:38 to play in the opening half. Sturdivant scored on a 30-yard run and the Bucs dialed up some trickery with a 12-yard halfback pass from Shedrick Jackson to Cortez Hall to make it 41-0 with 43 seconds left before halftime.

Hoover rested its starters after the first half and played its second and third string the rest of the way.

Tre Copeland picked off a pass early in the third quarter to set up another Bucs’ score with a R.J. Randle touchdown to make it 48-0.

County got on the board to start the fourth quarter when Bo Evans punched in a 1-yard touchdown run after an interception by the Wildcats.

Hoover responded with two touchdowns that got the Bucs’ bench hyped. After Tuscaloosa County recovered a fumble at the Hoover 37, Copeland picked off the Wildcats again, this time at the 3 on fourth-and-11 with 5:35 to play. Copeland broke down the sideline for a 97-yard pick-six and was met in the end zone by nearly half the Hoover team. Some players were yelling “Play of the Week!” as they rushed the field.

“I’ve been waiting on it. I saw him throw it, and I just broke on it. I saw open ground, so I just kept running,” Copeland said.

It was Copeland’s second pick of the game and first pick-six as a Buc.

“I was proud to see it. That’s a big play for him. He’s a kid we need in the back half of the season to be able to play for us, so for him to get quality reps tonight was big,” Niblett said. “We were able to get a lot of guys in the game, and for a program like ours where you have a lot of players, you want to give them an opportunity. These guys practice hard all week so they deserve to get in the game.”

Another reserve shined in the fourth quarter as sophomore Larry McCammon broke free up the middle for a 40-yard touchdown run with 1:36 to play to cap Hoover’s scoring at 62-7. The run gave McCammon a team-leading 79 yards on five carries for the game. Sturdivant finished with 65 on six carries.

The win improves Hoover (4-1) to 4-0 against in-state teams and 3-0 in Class 7A, Region 3.

“Our biggest thing this week was to play to the standard that we wanted to set. This is a special group of kids, a focused group of kids that are hungry. They know where they want to be at the end of the year,” said Niblett. “We want to get better and play up to a standard and take the standard to another level. I felt our kids were able to do that tonight.”

The season-high point total for the Bucs stands as only the second time they have scored 60-plus since moving to Class 7A.

Hoover finished the night with 340 yards of total offense, while holding Tuscaloosa County to 178.