By Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
As Chris Yeager sees it, Mountain Brook football victories will take care of themselves when Mountain Brook plays Mountain Brook football.
Last Friday at Spartan Stadium, that didn’t happen.
“We played something other than Mountain Brook football tonight,” Yeager said after his Spartans lost 13-10 to Parker before an announced crowd of 15,772.
The victory was Parker’s first ever in seven tries against Mountain Brook, and it was the first game between the two teams since 2000 for which the scores were separated by single digits.
The win gives the Thundering Herd the championship in Class 6A Region 5 with a 5-0 region record and a 7-1 overall mark.
Yeager said he would have been disappointed even if his team had managed to win.
“We violated the principles of winning football,” he said. “You don’t line up offsides and extend drives where they score. You don’t snap the ball early and have a snapping infraction. You don’t fumble the football.”
The Spartans were called for being offsides six times, had too many players on the field once, were guilty of illegal procedure twice, extended a drive with a facemask infraction and missed a field goal.
On top of that, quarterback John Cooper was intercepted twice by Parker outside linebacker Carlton Duncan.
Thundering Herd coach Frank Warren said his team was equally uncharacteristic. For them, that was good.
“I tried to get them to understand that discipline was going to win this game,” Warren said. “We’ve been undisciplined all year and (the team) finally showed up with discipline. I take my hat off to my players.
“We knew it was going to be a four-quarter game with Mountain Brook. Coach Yeager does a great job and we fought to the end. I tell people all the time we’re trying to build something over here. This is big for our program.”
Mountain Brook opened the scoring in the second quarter on senior running back Cole Gamble’s 2-yard touchdown run. But the Thundering Herd, aided by two drive-extending offsides penalties, drove 80 yards to knot the score at 7-7 on Na’eem Offord’s 3-yard run.
The teams exchanged fumbles to open the third quarter. The period also included a failed 44-yard field goal by Mountain Brook and a Parker lost fumble at the Spartan 1 on the ensuing drive.
“I am proud of how hard our kids fought,” Yeager said. “Down here on the goal line, they could have tucked it in. They fought their guys out.”
The Spartans retook the lead with 7:17 left in the game on Harrison Fell’s 33-yard field goal. Parker responded with another 80-yard drive, culminating with Offord’s 1-yard plunge.
Warren had told the 6-foot-2 junior that he would be called on a lot in this game.
“Some people try to outsmart people,” Warren said. “Just put the ball in the best player’s hands and let them make the play.”
The winning drive included a play in which Parker quarterback Cameron Jennings picked up a fumble and ran 4 yards for first and goal at the 10. Four plays later, Offord scored with just 34 seconds on the clock.
The Spartans’ Watts Alexander blocked the extra point, leaving the door ajar for a possible victory. However, Mountain Brook’s final drive got no farther than midfield
Celebrating First
Parker’s players celebrated their win by drenching their coach with the contents of a sideline cooler.
“It feels good to win a region championship for the first time since 2014,” Warren said. “That was our first goal, and we’ve got some more goals to go. We’re going to keep that to ourselves.”
Offord had 17 carries for 99 yards and two touchdowns. Gamble finished with 27 carries for 161 yards and a score.
Parker hosts Minor (2-5, 1-3) in a region game this week. The No. 2 seed in the region is on the line next week as the Spartans (5-2, 3-1) host Mortimer Jordan (6-1, 3-1) before completing region play Oct. 27 at Gardendale.
Yeager said his team can’t think about the what-ifs of the region standings.
“The truth is, you can’t go there,” he said. “What you do is you add pressure. What you say is it’s just the next football game. What’s the worst thing that can happen? We play away.
“But we get to play. It’s not like there’s going to be a firing squad and they’re going to shoot us all, I hope. You just keep it in context. No. 1, it’s high school football and it’s an opportunity to learn. We line up and play the very best we can.”
