Bucs win battle of top teams

HOOVER – Jabari Moore was a little winded, and rightfully so.

After chasing Thompson High School’s prolific passing attack up and down the field most of the evening, Moore stepped in front of a Taulia Tagovailoa pass midway through the fourth quarter and returned it 67 yards down to the 11-yard line.

Hoover (2-1) scored two plays later to put the finishing touches on a big 45-26 win over the Warriors on Friday night at the Hoover Met in a battle of the top two Class 7A teams.

When asked about coming up shy of the end zone, Moore smiled.

“I got tired there at the end,” he said.

Both offenses put up over 500 total yards in a game that featured momentum swings and several detonations of the Hoover touchdown cannon, as the Bucs began the Region 3 slate with a win in front of a near sellout crowd.

Top-ranked Thompson (2-1) turned a 21-0 deficit early in the second quarter into a 31-26 Hoover lead after a third-quarter surge to make a game of it, eliciting memories of last season’s regular season game between the two foes, when No. 2 Hoover surrendered an early lead and Thompson roared back to win in the final moments.

But Robby Ashford ran for a 4-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 38-26. With the same score holding later in the quarter, Thompson marched down to the Hoover 24-yard line, before Tagovailoa made his only critical mistake of the evening.

Moore said, “I saw (the receiver) do a slant and I broke on it, and the ball was there.”

“That was big, getting the turnover, because he don’t throw many picks,” Hoover head coach Josh Niblett said. “For us to get a pick from him was huge there, get a return down and stick that one in the end zone to close the game out.”

Two plays later, McCammon scored his third touchdown of the night to put the nail in the coffin. That run capped off a huge game for the senior running back, who carried the rock 21 times for 103 yards and three touchdowns. His first score of the night was set up by a Thompson muffed punt, recovered by Hoover long snapper Ben Hendrix at the 1-yard line. 

Tagovailoa put on an incredible display, completing 33-of-57 passes for 478 yards, four touchdowns and the lone interception. Even as Hoover’s defense appeared to tire some in the second half, the Bucs were able to make Thompson’s offense one-dimensional. The Warriors ran the ball just 18 times in the game.

“I thought we did a good job defensively of trying to contain (Tagovailoa) as much as possible,” Niblett said. “They’re going to get theirs.”

Hoover’s offense didn’t let Thompson’s have the solo spotlight. The Bucs rebounded in a big way from a 42-14 loss last week to St. John’s College (DC), posting 303 rushing yards. Ashford accounted for three touchdowns on the night — two passing and one rushing — completing 10-of-21 passes for 196 yards. He also picked up 151 yards on the ground. 

“We got a lot of work to do but I feel like we can play with anybody,” he said. “I love these guys and I’m proud of the win.”

Ashford delivered one of those scores through the air to Auburn commit George Pickens, who caught five balls for 88 yards. Pickens had another touchdown taken away by a pass interference penalty. Xavier Long caught a 29-yard scoring pass early in the second quarter.

“When we needed to score and make big plays, we made big plays. And we were able to start fast. That was the key to the game,” Niblett said.

Thompson played its best in the second and third quarters. Once the Warriors fell behind by three scores, Tagovailoa hit Kyle Smoak on an 8-yard pass to get them on the board. Hoover followed that up with a 41-yard field goal from Will Reichard, and Thompson capped off the first half scoring with a 32-yard pass from Tagovailoa to AJ Bonham to make it 24-12 at the break.

“It’s a good game for us to go back after Week 3 and find out what we did and what we can correct and get better from that,” Thompson head coach Mark Freeman said.

McCammon scored for the second time on Hoover’s first possession in the third quarter, putting the Bucs up 31-12. Michael Pettway caught touchdown passes of 48 and 10 yards to close the gap to 31-26.

Hoover has the initial leg up in the Region 3 race, but the challenge remains tough next week, as the Bucs make a visit to Hewitt-Trussville.

“We’ll enjoy it a little bit, then we got to get ready for Hewitt next week,” Niblett said.

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