Meredith leads Bucs comeback to beat top-ranked Thompson
HOOVER -- Bennett Meredith took a big shot to the knee, then got up and led Hoover High School down the field on the biggest drive of his life.
His 8-yard touchdown pass to Jabari Gaines gave No. 2 Hoover a 24-21 win over previously unbeaten and barely scored upon Thompson, clinching the Class 7A, Region 3 championship and giving the Bucs a victory in what could be the first of two heavyweight fights between the state powers.
Down 21-17 with 2:38 left, Hoover (10-0, 7-0 in region) took over on its own 19-yard line after forcing a punt. Meredith took hard hits and faced pressure from a talented Thompson defense laced with high-level prospects all night, but the senior quarterback is also going to be playing college football. He took a big hit on second down and barely got an incomplete pass off, but got right back up after his knee briefly gave out on the grass.
On third down, he hit RJ Hamilton with a bullet for 10 yards and a first down. Then it was Cotton Peters with a 33-yard catch, KJ Law with a 13-yarder, Hamilton again for 15 down to the 10 and Sky Niblett with an 8-yard reception to the 2.
After a rush for a loss of a yard and a 5-yard penalty, Meredith scrambled and found Gaines, his tight end, open in the right corner for a score with 14 seconds left. Thompson (9-1, 6-1), which did not have the services of starting quarterback and North Carolina commit Conner Harrell in the second half, could not do anything else and lost its first game since Oct. 25, 2019.
Meredith finished 22-of-37 for 279 yards with three touchdowns and shook off an early interception. Two of the touchdown passes went to Gaines.
“He’s just unbelievably tough,” Hoover head coach Josh Niblett said. “He’s got it. You can’t explain what it is, but he’s got it. He’s a special young man. He’s a leader. He’s a highly competitive kid. He hangs on every throw sometimes, but he willed us on that last drive and guys made plays. We had four catches on that drive that were just unbelievable.”
Hoover snapped a five-game losing streak to the Warriors. Earlier this week, coaches made sure that players saw a local news outlet’s prediction.
“Coach hung it up on all lockers a prediction from the Shelby County Reporter that they were going to beat us 35-0,” Meredith said. “We believe we’re the best team in the state. Coach Niblett says it every week. We show up to play every Friday night and that’s all you can ask for.”
Hoover went ahead 3-0 on Peyton Argent’s 29-yard field goal.
Thompson scored 21 in the second quarter and Hoover, after getting an 18-yard touchdown pass from Meredith to Gaines, later had a chance to cut into the lead on the last play before half, but on 4th and goal from the 1 on the final play of the half, Williams was ruled short of the goal line, as it looked like Thompson’s Jax Van Zandt and Tony Mitchell got the tackle to keep the Warriors’ lead at 21-10.
“We had to bow right back,” Niblett said. “We went in at halftime and our kids could have quit. I told them that nobody said it’s going to be easy and I told them it’s going to be more special when we go win it right now.”
Hamilton, who has missed much of the season with an injury, caught nine passes for 151 yards and a 25-yard score from Meredith in the third quarter. Gaines caught two touchdown passes and relished in the game-winner.
“I’ve never been in a situation where the game’s on the line and the ball is in my hands,” Gaines said. “It feels great to capitalize on.
“We knew we didn’t care what they said. We knew reporters were talking about how they were going to beat us and they were talking about how they were going to beat us. We just had to play our game. This is our field and we were at home.”
Thompson head coach Mark Freeman didn’t comment on why Harrell left the game, but the senior went 8-of-9 for 180 yards and two scores, including a 78-yarder to Jaylen Ward. Backup Zach Sims went 3-of-6 for 46 yards, but Hoover’s Jay Avery picked off a pass and the Bucs forced a fumble after pressure in the third quarter.
These teams could match up again in the Class 7A semifinals in four weeks. Both will have a bye next week before the playoffs start. But this night belonged to the Bucs.
“This is what Hoover is all about and this is how we’re going to get our edge back,” Niblett said.