Erin Nelson
If you thought high school football’s non-region week — that cuts the regular season in half in many ways — was going to be quiet and boring, you would’ve been very wrong.
Clay-Chalkville set the stage Thursday with a wildly entertaining upset of Class 7A top-ranked Thompson, the four-time defending state champion. The Cougars had to rally back from double-digit deficits twice to earn a big win on ESPN2.
Jaylen Mbakwe, the highly-touted University of Alabama commit, put on a show, scoring five rushing touchdowns on the evening. This coming from a player who entered his senior year not having played quarterback since his middle school days. He has been featured as an elite receiver in his Clay-Chalkville career up to this year, and likely projects to play defense at Alabama.
After the game, Mbakwe climbed atop the podium and directed the band in the playing of the alma mater. It also happened to be his 18th birthday. Have a day, Jaylen.
Thompson’s freshman phenom quarterback, Trent Seaborn, held his own. He had some success against a Clay-Chalkville defense that had been utterly dominant through the first half of the season. The Cougars have a week off before finishing the season with three region games.
On Friday, Mountain Brook capitalized on an opportunity, beating scuffling Hoover for the first time since 2011. Coming off last season’s state runner-up finish, it would have been no surprise to see the Spartans take a bit of a step back. And after a blowout loss to Vestavia Hills in the season opener, that appeared likely. But since then, Mountain Brook has gotten steadily better and began its region run with three straight shutouts.
After an open week, though, the schedule is about to get real for the Spartans. We’ll find out how good they really are against Parker, Mortimer Jordan and Gardendale.
Briarwood is another team that got off to a slow start against superior competition, but has really taken huge strides in recent weeks. The Lions won their third straight, notching their first shutout of a 7A team in program history with the win over Oak Mountain. They’ll head to Helena this Friday with the lead in region play at stake.
Along the same lines, Homewood has really picked things up over the last three weeks, winning three straight to even the record at 3-3. The Patriots have won games in a variety of ways, scoring a bunch of points to beat Benjamin Russell two weeks ago, and outlasting Pinson Valley this past week in a defensive struggle. This Patriots team has improved leaps and bounds since the opener.
In addition to a tough schedule, Chelsea is now dealing with the injury bug. The Hornets got beaten soundly by Pelham last week, and the second half of the season doesn’t feature any layups. They have four games left, against Vestavia Hills, Spain Park, Hoover and Hewitt-Trussville.
Hewitt-Trussville took care of a hapless Huffman team on homecoming and has its sights set on a big Region 3 game this week at home against Thompson. This is a huge opportunity for the Huskies to take hold of the driver’s seat in the region standings.
Region play resumes this week. Briarwood and Hewitt-Trussville are in games that may end up deciding their regions, depending on how the rest of the season shakes out. John Carroll is still unbeaten, but is about to head to Pleasant Grove. Let’s just say that’s going to be a tall task.
Here are the games Starnes Media will be covering this week:
- Briarwood at Helena
- Vestavia Hills at Chelsea
- Hewitt-Trussville vs. Thompson
- Oak Mountain at Hoover
- John Carroll at Pleasant Grove
- Spain Park at Tuscaloosa County
