AUBURN – Mountain Brook struggled to contain Saraland sophomore Ryan Williams in the 2022 Class 6A championship football game.
When cornerback Tucker Crawford wrestled Williams out of bounds at the 1-yard line on what appeared to be the final play of the first half, Mountain Brook coaches and players hustled off the field with a surge of optimism.
Saraland coach Jeff Kelly challenged the officials’ ruling, and instant replay showed Williams fell out of bounds with two seconds to play. “I knew we were out of bounds in time,” Kelly said.
Williams, the Saraland star who has already committed to Alabama, took advantage of the extra time. He motioned from his usual receiver spot to quarterback and took a direct snap before scoring on a 1-yard TD run on the final play of the half and increase Saraland’s lead to 28-10.
The record book will show the final score as Saraland 38, Mountain Brook 17 to win the 6A state title at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium, behind four touchdowns from Williams – a 61-yard run, 24-yard reception, 58-yard run and 1-yard run.
The cold facts, however, can’t reflect how Mountain Brook (12-3) performed with persistence and determination, especially in the second half to prevent a Saraland (14-1) runaway.
“I remember at halftime just looking at the guys around me and no one really had their head down,” Crawford said. “It was just like every other play. It didn’t really faze us. Honestly, it picked everyone up, like, ‘Hey, we’re still good. We can keep fighting,’ and that’s exactly what we did. We just didn’t get the break we needed, unfortunately.”
Mountain Brook coach Chris Yeager was proud of the way his team continued to battle until the game was over.
“It could have spiraled and it didn’t,” Mountain Brook coach Chris Yeager said. “The kids bowed up and showed a lot of guts and grit. That’s one of the things I’m going to remember. That’s probably one of the proudest moments for me, after that how they came out and continued to fight.”
Never Stop Trying
Clark Sanderson’s second-half touchdown catch served as the perfect example for Mountain Brook’s tenacity. He slipped to the turf but popped up to catch the pass from quarterback John Colvin and turned it into a 31-yard touchdown.
Sanderson’s score cut the deficit to 31-17, and Saraland’s subsequent drive went three-and-out. Mountain Brook seemed poised to cut into the lead again, but Saraland’s Isaiah Bowie’s diving interception on a tipped pass essentially ended the Mountain Brook comeback bid.
“This is something I’m proud of: We played better in the second half than we played in the first half,” Yeager said. “That was a very, very physical football game. It was a very physical first half, and I didn’t know how much gas we had in the tank. But I tell you what, the kids gave every ounce they had in the tank. That’s one thing, when we’re on the sideline, we say we’re going to fight to the last man standing, and they did.”
Sanderson finished with 10 catches for 153 yards. Cole Gamble ran for 75 yards and a 1-yard touchdown run. Jack Heaps kicked a 33-yard field goal. Senior linebacker Vaughn Frost led the defense with 15 tackles and Trent Wright added 10 during the game, the first time Mountain Brook had played in a state championship game since 1996.
The numbers, though, didn’t matter to Yeager and his players. In the post-game interview, they spoke powerfully and poignantly about the “journey” of the season and how they “played with joy.”
“We were lucky enough to know this was our last game together,” Frost said, “and we didn’t want to waste it. We didn’t look at the scoreboard in the fourth quarter. We just wanted to enjoy the last minutes together.
“I’ve dreamed about something like this since I was, like, 5 or 6 years old. I got to be like a mini celebrity for a week, which is really cool. I mean I played on Jordan-Hare, which not a lot of people can say. We got beat in the end, but, gosh, it was a lot of fun.”
Mountain Brook fell one win shy of winning its first state title since 1976. Despite the outcome, the players seemed satisfied with their performance.
“Nobody makes you a champion because they put a ring on your finger or a trophy on your shelf,” Yeager said. “A champion is something that occurs as a journey. Part of the heart, it’s a growth process and it’s something that occurs for the rest of your life. It’s trying to become a craftsman in whatever you do as a person. Your character, everything. That’s where the focus came from.
“It wasn’t trying to win, where someone on the outside said, ‘You guys are champions.’ It was what is that person and could we become that. That was our journey.”
