Jaguars knock off James Clemens
In the aftermath of his team’s victory over Hazel Green in the first round of the Class 7A state playoffs last week, Spain Park coach Shawn Raney made a telling prediction.
“It’s going to be a war next Friday,” Raney said, referencing the highly anticipated matchup slated to unfold the following week at Jaguar Stadium between the state’s top-ranked teams.
As it turned out, Raney couldn’t have been more correct.
In a true battle of attrition between 7A No. 1 and No. 2, Spain Park (11-1) outlasted visiting James Clemens (10-2) 13-10, charging back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter of the state quarterfinal to clinch a dramatic, season-extending victory on Crosby Gray’s booming 41-yard field goal.
“It was a street fight. We talked about that all week,” Raney said. “That’s a very good football team we just beat, especially defensively. We watched them all week on tape. They’ve got really good players, really well coached, and I knew it was going to be this type of game.”
Until the final 17 minutes, however, the Jags didn’t look like they knew what hit them.
A pair of uncharacteristic first half turnovers, fumbles by running backs Larry Wooden and Wade Streeter, cost the team both field position and points, sending Spain Park to the halftime locker room trailing 10-0.
Wooden’s fumble on the second play from scrimmage translated into a 29-yard field goal from Jets kicker William Grochowski while Streeter’s second quarter miscue inside the opposing 10-yard line ended a prime scoring opportunity that could have at least tied the game.
Instead, James Clemens found the end zone with just over one minute to play in the half when utility back Montavian Rice Jordan took a direct snap around right end from 13 yards out and dove full extension over the front right pylon.
The 24-minute shutout, which was the first time Spain Park had trailed at the half since its season-opening loss to Austin, represented the only time all season the Jags had been held scoreless through the first two quarters of play.
“I saw some bad looks going into halftime, and I didn’t like the way they looked,” Raney said. “We just got them up in a circle, and I said, ‘all the work that we’ve done, we can’t let it go like this.’”
Taking heed of their coach’s advice, the Jags came out in the second half and showed what they were made of.
With just under five minutes to play in the third quarter and still trailing 10-0, Spain Park constructed a relentless, 11-play drive characterized by forceful, bruising runs from Wooden and Streeter. The tandem broke tackle after tackle, setting up a 25-yard field goal from Gray with 11:57 to play in the fourth quarter.
After that, it was all Spain Park.
On the very next Jets possession, Jags defensive back Chase Young made the play of the game, turning the tide with a 35-yard interception return for a touchdown.
“I saw the ball coming. I saw so much field to the right, I just took off running, man,” Young said. “The whole time, all I was thinking about was my teammates, all my fellow seniors, and I just knew that our season can’t end tonight.”
Young hauled in the interception while defending a potential corner route along the near sideline, weaving across the field before reaching the far corner of the end zone.
“Honestly, nothing beats that feeling right there, nothing,” Young said.
With the score knotted at 10-10 and just over 10 minutes of game time remaining, the Spain Park defense stood as stout as it had all year, holding James Clemens to its own side of the field and preventing the Jets from converting a fake punt attempt on a fourth-and-4.
The failed attempt gave the Jags possession on the Jets’ 38-yard line and, after moving the ball 14 yards, set up Gray’s game-winning 41-yard field goal with 6:42 to play.
“It feels great just to help out my team again,” Gray said. “Tonight was exactly the same as every other kick in my opinion. My dad always tells me, ‘every kick is the same, every kick is the same,’ so that’s what I was thinking.”
Although plenty of time remained on the clock for James Clemens to respond, a muffed punt by the Jets’ returner with under three minutes to play gave Spain Park possession deep in opposing territory, allowing the Jags to wind down the clock and seal their 11th-straight victory.
“If you want to come in and win this game and move on to the next one, you can’t make mistakes like that and win,” Jets coach Wade Waldrop said.
Riding a nine-game streak into the contest, the loss was the team’s first since it fell to Bob Jones 27-24 in Week 2 of the regular season.
With the win, Spain Park advances to next Friday’s state semifinal showdown against cross-town rival Hoover, a team the Jags beat for the first time in school history on Oct. 1.
“We’ve got a big one next week for all the marbles,” Raney said, “and it couldn’t be any better, us playing Hoover, so we’ll get to work on them immediately.”