By Erik Harris
CLAY – For the fourth time in as many years Clay-Chalkville has hoisted a region championship, but don’t tell that to senior quarterback Ty Pigrome.
“It feels good. We just knew we were going to have a good game and come away with the win, and it’s five (consecutive region championships),” said Pigrome following his team’s 52-27 Class 6A, Region 6 championship game win over No. 10 Gardendale on Friday night.
The Rockets were believed to be the one opponent that could hang with the state’s top team leading up to the matchup, but there was one little problem – once the ball was kicked and the assumptions hushed, Gardendale couldn’t stop that Cougar offense.
Pigrome was a problem for the guests all night. He scored early and often, finishing the night with four touchdowns through the air and another on the ground. The senior went 9-of-15 through the air for 146 yards. He tucked it up 16 times for 102 yards and another score.
It was the defense that made the play of the night, however. After an inadvertent whistle took a 100-yard pick-6 away from Gardendale’s Reagan Padgett, Cougar sophomore Jamarlin Sewell scooped up a fumbled hook and ladder attempt and ran 20 yards to the end zone for a 14-point swing at the tail end of the first half.
Sewell’s timely performance sent the home team into the break with a 31-21 advantage. From there, Clay-Chalkville put the game away.
“That kind of changed things,” said Clay-Chalkville head coach Jerry Hood. “I was happy for (Sewell). He’s a good athlete.”
While Sean Talsma’s defense kept the Rockets quiet, Pigrome and the offense posted three quick touchdowns on their first three posessions of the third quarter to put the game out of reach.
Pigrome got it started when he stood tall in the face of a pass rush to find T.J. Simmons over the middle for a 17-yard touchdown. That pitch and catch capped a seven-play drive that ended with a 38-21 Cougar lead.
Running back Brandon Berry got the following Clay-Chalkville drive started with a 59-yard scamper that landed three yards shy of the end zone. Pigrome took it from there, scoring three snaps later to all but place the championship hardware in the school’s trophy case.
Pigrome scored his final touchdown of the night with an eight-yard slant to Dez Williams on the first play of the fourth quarter. He also found Nico Collins for a 36-yard score on the opening drive of the night before hitting T.J. Simmons from 13 yards out on the following drive.
Despite the many passing touchdowns, it was the Clay-Chalkville running game that broke the Rockets. Senior ball carrier A.J. Walker put his bruising running style to use, churning up 148 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.
His score came at, perhaps, the team’s most vulnerable moment of the season. Walker pushed a blue and white pile of players three yards over the goal ling to erase Gardendale’s seven-point advantage midway through the second quarter.
“We wanted to come out and make a statement,” said Hood. “There was kind of an undertone of ‘yall are good, but you haven’t played anybody.’ We can’t help who’s on the schedule, but we wanted to come out and show that we were tougher than the other guy.”
Rocket quarterback Zack Cupps had his offense moving the ball in the first half, finishing three of his first four drives in the end zone. He sparked Gardendale’s first touchdown drive with a 43-yard pass to Padgett before Walvid King took an option pitch 21 yards for the score to even things at 7-all.
Cupps would later even the score at 14-all with a 19-yard strike to Blake Zumbado. The visitor’s only lead of the evening came when Cupps ended a nine-play drive with a 2-yard plunge between the tackles to put the Rockets on top 21-14 early in the second.
Defensively, cornerback C.J. Toney got his hands on a Cupps’ pass and ran it back into Rocket territory.
“I knew they had been running hitches, so I broke on the ball, the ball was there and I made a play,” said Toney. “I’m glad to be a part of this team. We’ve been working all summer for this moment right here to go on to the playoffs and work harder.”
Clay-Chalkville will put an end to its regular season next week when it hosts Class 7A rival No. 8 Hewitt-Trussville.