Jags fall to top-ranked Thompson
HOOVER - After a 48-35 loss to Class 7A No. 1 Thompson, Spain Park High School head coach Shawn Raney made a bold proclamation.
“If we can continue to improve, I think we’re going to be a playoff team,” Raney said. “I’ve been telling our kids that all year, so I’m going to say that and we’re going to do everything we can to get there.
“This region is a tough task, but our kids grew up a lot tonight.”
Spain Park dropped to 2-2, 0-2 in Region 3, but had a chance to pull within one score in the last three minutes against a team loaded with SEC talent. Junior linebacker Jeremiah Alexander has committed to Alabama and senior running back Sam Reynolds is a South Carolina pledge, among a roster full of college talent.
With 5:57 left, Jags’ junior quarterback Bennett Meredith hit senior receiver Cooper Kelley with a 14-yard touchdown pass, cutting Thompson’s lead to 48-35.
There, the Jaguars attempted an onside kick and kicker Drake Tabor recovered it. The Jaguars had third-and-goal at the 2, but Thompson’s Ahmari Bolden intercepted a floating Meredith pass as he was under immense pressure. The Warriors were able to hold on from there and improve to 4-0, 2-0.
Meredith was dynamic on the night, hitting 26-of-44 passes for 291 yards with three touchdowns. On the game’s third play, he hit Kelley with a 59-yard touchdown. He added a fourth-quarter 15-yard touchdown to Kerec Hill to make the score 48-28 after Thompson built a big lead.
Meredith also had a 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to make it 20-14.
“He’s a fighter,” Raney said. “I’ve known that all along. He loves football and he’s not going to come out and our kids respect him for that. He’s everything you want in a quarterback and we’re real proud of him.”
But while Spain Park had 366 yards of total offense, Thompson had 665. Junior quarterback Conner Harrell was the star, hitting 19-of-29 passes for 410 yards and three touchdowns. He did throw an interception to Spain Park’s Michael Ogletree and that set up the score to make it 48-35.
“You’ve got to hand it to Spain Park,” Thompson head coach Mark Freeman said. “They played hard the whole game and they never quit, but our guys made the plays when we needed to make some plays.”
Harrell added touchdown runs of 13 and 3 yards. He threw touchdown passes of 21 yards to Zach Johnson, 85 to Reynolds where Reynolds did most of the work on a short pass and 28 to Tre Roberson, an Army commit.
“Speed, bad angles, they’ve got some players,” Raney said. “Players make plays and they made some. We had a kid corralled up over here. As a coach, you get them in position and sometimes they make a play and sometimes they don’t. It wasn’t because of a lack of effort. We’ll work and get those fixed.”
Kelley led the Jaguars with 109 yards on seven catches. Jaylen Ward had eight catches for 80 yards.
Spain Park, which improved from last week’s 45-13 loss to Hewitt-Trussville, continues region play at Gadsden City next week.
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