By Rubin E. Grant
Mountain Brook football coach Chris Yeager spent last weekend trying to learn as much as he could about the undefeated Hartselle Tigers.
The Spartans (10-2) will play host to Hartselle (12-0) Friday in the Class 6A quarterfinals of the state playoffs.
Even before dissecting the kind of opponent the Spartans would face, Yeager had a pretty good idea about what to expect.
“When you get to this point in the playoffs, anybody you play is going to be pretty good,” Yeager said. “There are eight teams left and nobody stumbled in.”
Mountain Brook earned its spot in the quarterfinals with a 37-6 second-round victory at Gadsden City (7-5) last Friday. Hartselle defeated Center Point 36-26 to advance.
Junior running back Cole Gamble had another monster game for the Spartans, rushing 30 times for 271 yards and four touchdowns on runs of 2, 10, 79 and 1 yards.
Gamble now has scored 10 touchdowns and rushed for more than 500 yards in two playoff games. He ran for 233 yards and six touchdowns in Mountain Brook’s 49-7 victory against Pinson Valley in the first round.
“I thought Cole played hard,” Yeager said. “Coming in we felt we needed him to carry it 20-25 times and he wound up with 30 carries.”
Meanwhile, the Spartans’ defense was rock-solid against the Titans, allowing only a late third-quarter touchdown and coming up with three turnovers, including two in the red zone. Hampton King and Sam Hunt had interceptions.
“I thought our defense played really good,” Yeager said. “It was a collective group effort.”
Despite the lopsided outcome, Yeager said the Spartans need to correct a few things before they play Hartselle.
“We had some big plays and we played hard, but we didn’t play with precision on offense and we were sloppy at times,” Yeager said. “There are times when you lose a game, but you’re proud of the way you played, and there are times when you win a game and you come away saying we’re better than that. We’ve got some cleaning up to do.”
Mountain Brook will be attempting to reach the semifinals for the third consecutive season.
