3 months ago
2
IRONDALE – Class 6A No. 8 Mountain Brook High School took care of business and ran its way to a 37-0 win over Shades Valley at Frank Nix Stadium on Thursday night.
The win gives the Spartans a 7-3 regular season record, and they’ll head to Class 6A, Region 8 runner-up Southside-Gadsden for the first round of the 6A playoffs on Nov. 8.
Junior running back Stuart Andrews had his way with the Mounties’ defense, scoring on three first-half touchdown runs of 3, 7 and 55 yards. He added a fourth touchdown run of 10 yards late in the third quarter.
“It all just starts with the [offensive line],” Andrews said. “They’re making the magic happen. You can watch it on film every single play. They’re making it happen, and I just do the easy part. We have a landmark we try to hit, and it opens up like the Red Sea. That’s what happens.”
Mountain Brook’s other points came on a third-quarter touchdown pass of 33 yards from quarterback Cayden Hofbauer to receiver Sam Smith, and Anderson Roberts made a 37-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter.
The Spartans’ defense completed its second straight shutout and third of the season, turning the Mounties over three times via interception. Those interceptions were made by Miller Lee, Hampton King and Mac Mandell.
“They were flying around and making plays, making turnovers to give the offense a short field,” said Mountain Brook head coach Chris Yeager. “I thought besides the offense’s turnovers, I thought we played exceptional in the standpoint of complementary football. The special teams, offense and defense was a really great effort.”
The turnovers were two first-half fumbles by Hofbauer, but Shades Valley couldn’t capitalize. The Mounties (3-6 overall, 2-4 in region) finished with 166 total yards, 122 of which came on the ground. Freshman Quincy Poole paced Shades Valley with 64 yards on 16 carries. Geordyn Clarke ran for 45 yards in the latter stages of the game on six carries.
Hofbauer finished 3-of-6 for 70 yards and a touchdown. The Spartans rushed for 298 yards and finished with 368 total yards of offense.
“We had some sustained drives,” Yeager said. “Ran the ball well. I feel like as the game went on we progressively got cleaner and cleaner in our play.”
Shades Valley’s season is now over. Mountain Brook takes a bye next week before the playoffs begin.
“We’ve got things to work on going into the next season, the second season,” Yeager said. “We’ve got to work on everything next week on both sides of the ball so we’ll know as the playoffs, maybe as we advance in the playoffs, we’ll be able to pull from that catalog of things that we’re working on next week.”
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