By Loyd McIntosh
Mountain Brook bounced back from a two-game losing streak in a big way Thursday night, crushing Helena 37-0 in the Spartans’ home opener at Spartan Stadium. The win, coming on the heels of last Friday’s 33-13 loss at Homewood, gave Mountain Brook its first region victory of the season.
While the offense took a full half to find its rhythm, the Spartan defense set the tone early, bullying the Huskies’ offense all night long. From the opening whistle until the final seconds ticked off the clock, Mountain Brook’s defense pantsed the Huskies, stole their lunch money, and gave them multiple atomic wedgies, leading the way to the Spartans’ second win of the season.
Mountain Brook head coach Chris Yeager says he was proud of how the team responded following two tough losses on the road and that the game was almost a complete performance by a young Spartan squad, especially the defense.
“It was a swarming defense. They’ve played hard all year long, but I think they played just about perfect tonight,” Yeager says. “We really did a great job responding to the setback last week. The bottom line is ‘what do you do about it?’ What they did was they got some backbone and corrected the mistakes. That was the difference. That was phenomenal.”
Mountain Brook took a 3-0 lead on a 41-yard field goal by William Russ. On the Huskies’ next possession, defensive back Luke Carroll intercepted a pass from Helena quarterback Caleb Soreano with 38 seconds to play in the opening period.
It appeared the Husky defense would hold on Mountain Brook’s ensuing possession. However, quarterback Pruet James gutted out three yards on fourth-and-two at the Helena 30-yard line. On the next play, Pruet threw a perfect toss to John Colvin for a 27-yard touchdown. However, Mountain Brook’s placekicking woes continued as the extra point was blocked, giving the Spartans a 9-0 lead with just under two minutes to play in the first half.
Mountain Brook had a great opportunity on its final possession of the first half as Pruet completed several passes to Butler Teague in the final drive of the second quarter. The Spartans were poised to extend their lead as the offense put together an efficient drive to the Huskies’ 10-yard line. However, a costly delay-of-game penalty and an incomplete pass forced the Spartans to attempt a 19-yard field goal. Russ’ kick was wide left, and Mountain Brook settled for a tight 9-0 lead at halftime despite completely dominating Helena in the first half.
In the second half, the Spartans blew things wide open. After an inexplicably bad squib kickoff by Helena, Mountain Brook started its initial second-half possession from their own 43-yard line. Eight plays later, James threw to tight end Wallace Hunter for a five-yard touchdown. This time, the extra point was good, giving Mountain Brook a 16-0 lead at the 8:30 mark of the third quarter.
The defense got into the act as Wyatt Sleeper recovered a fumble and returned it 57 yards for a touchdown, to give Mountain Brook a 23-0 lead with 1:38 to play in the third quarter. The Spartan defense continued to dominate, giving the offense excellent field position well into the fourth quarter, and the offense piled on. Graham Smith, normally a linebacker, scored on a direct snap for a one-yard touchdown with just over 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
Backup running back Beau Payne put the cherry on the parfait with a one-yard touchdown run with just over four minutes to play. Final score: Mountain Brook 37, Helena 0.
It was a great night for the offense, which has struggled to find the end zone since the Spartans opened the season with a 60-18 spanking of Hueytown. In the last two weeks, the Spartans managed only six points against UMS Wright in week two and 13 points last week against Homewood.
Yeager says the 30 points put up by the Spartan offense—23 in the second half— show tremendous growth and maturity. “I don’t know if it’s a first-half, second-half thing as much as it is just a growth journey. We know the ingredients are there,” Yeager says. “We’re on a journey, and you’re either trending upward or you’re trending down. We’re trending upward, but it just takes some time, and eventually it reveals itself.”
Mountain Brook racked up 390 yards of total offense while holding Helena to 211 yards, most of which came in the second half after the Spartans had firmly grasped control of the game.
James completed 11 of 19 passing attempts for 111 yards and two touchdowns. Colvin led the team with eight catches for 90 yards and a touchdown. Teague was the rushing leader with 177 yards on 23 carries.
With the win, Mountain Brook improves to 2-2 overall, 1-1 in 5A Region 4 action. They will travel to Clanton to face a winless Chilton County in the Spartans’ third consecutive region contest on Friday, September 18.
