Bucs breeze past Tuscaloosa County
HOOVER – The Hoover High School football team picked up where it left off prior to its bye week, as the Bucs took care of Tuscaloosa County, 35-7, for a Class 7A, Region 3 win on Friday night at the Hoover Met.
“To God be the glory to get the opportunity to get back out here after an open week. I think our kids were excited to get back out here and play,” Hoover head coach Josh Niblett said. “I thought we had to get a little rust off early on. We couldn’t get off the field on third down defensively, so they kind of chewed the clock up in the first quarter.”
Tuscaloosa County picked up four first downs to start the game before the Bucs were able to stop the 12-play possession at midfield.
Auburn University commitment George Pickens returned to the field for the first time since Sept. 21 and was the target Hoover's first offensive play. While Robby Ashford’s first pass fell short, Pickens went on to finish the game with 10 catches for 154 yards and two touchdowns.
“He’s a hard guy to tackle,” Niblett said. “I like to try to get him going early, and he was able to make some huge plays for us. Robby has a lot of confidence in him, as well as our other guys. It just happened tonight George had a lot of touches, and when he touches the football something electric has a chance to happen.”
On Hoover's first series of the game, Pickens caught four passes for 37 yards to move the Bucs down to the Wildcats’ 36-yard line. From there, Larry McCammon broke down the sideline for a 36-yard touchdown reception from Ashford to put the Bucs on the board, 7-0, with 3:42 to play in the quarter.
After a Tuscaloosa County fumble, recovered by Seth Parker, an Ashford pass was intercepted by John Williams at the 31. However, Hoover’s defense forced a punt after a three-and-out. Jabari Moore broke through the line to block the punt and set up a short field for the Bucs at the 33.
McCammon went back to work, pushing Hoover the rest of the way, capping the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. The senior finished the game with 72 yards on nine carries.
Tuscaloosa County continued to move the ball on Hoover, driving 57 yards down to the Bucs 23 before running into a fourth-and-3. Moore stepped up again, knocking a pass from Brylan Jackson out of a receiver's hands in the end zone to turn the ball over on downs.
Hoover answered with a four-minute drive that resulted in a 2-yard touchdown pass from Ashford to Anthony Hayes to go up 21-0 before the half. When Tuscaloosa County was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on the extra point, the Bucs seized an opportunity, kicking an onside kick from midfield. Marcus Williams recovered the kick, setting up a one-play strike from Ashford to Pickens for a 28-0 halftime lead.
“We’d been working on it all week, so if we had the opportunity to use it, we were going to use it,” Niblett said. “We executed it perfectly and then was able to hit George on the double move. They went man coverage and tried to blitz us. That was a big play for us.”
The personal foul was not the only in the game, as both sides were called at various times.
“I thought we did some good things tonight, and we have some things we need to get better at," Niblett said. "I think the biggest thing for us is to mentally get prepared and clean the game up a little bit. There was a lot of chatter going on after plays, and I’m not for that at all. It’s not the game. We talk about that daily. I thought we did a better job in the second half not getting caught up in that."
Sophomore quarterback Josh Lundy took over for Ashford on the first series of the third quarter and hit Pickens with a 41-yard touchdown strike to go up 35-0 with nearly 20 minutes to play in the game.
Despite a successful fake punt, Tuscaloosa County was unable to answer immediately, but did get on the board with 9:22 to play in the fourth quarter after Damien Taylor took control of the ground game, rushing for 42 yards on five carries to set up first-and-goal. TCHS backup QB Landon Hall punched in the touchdown from 1 yard out, 35-7.
Ashford finished the day 14-of-21 passing for 167 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, while Lundy was 1-of-2 for 41 yards and a TD.
Hoover used a running combination of Hayes, Massiah Tolen, Xzaviah Horton and Kam Whitaker to eat up nearly nine minutes of the fourth quarter clock before turning the ball over on downs.
Despite TCHS controlling a good bit of clock in the first and third quarters, Hoover held the Wildcats to 210 total yards, including 142 on the ground. Haseem Brown and Taylor led the rushing attack with 59 and 52 yards, respectively. Jackson was 8-of-16 passing for 57 yards.
Defensively, Kam Robinson recorded two sacks for the Bucs. Moore finished the game with more than six tackles and three pass break ups.
Hoover (4-2, 3-1 in region) will close out its in-state regular season with three-straight region games, beginning at Spain Park on Oct. 12.
“That’s always a tough place to play and it’s a rivalry, so you can throw the records out,” Niblett said. “This is about playing for November. We’ve got to get better this week, make sure we clean up what we’re doing and get healed up and make sure we’re full speed going into the game.”
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