By Johnny Sanders, for The Tribune
On and night where thunder and lightning were not just meteorological terms, the Clay-Chalkville Cougars imposed their will on the Shades Valley Mounties with 37-19 victory
at Frank Hicks Stadium.
The fireworks started as soon as Wuilman Guerrero, Shades Valley’s kicker, put his foot to the ball. Clay’s Marquarius White fielded the ball at the goal line and raced
100 yards to open the game with a touchdown and set the tone for what would be a three-touchdown night for the Junior wide receiver.
Quarterback Khalib Johnson later found him on a fourth-and-6 from the 28. The diving grab gave the Cougars a 13-6 advantage with 1:17 to play in the opening quarter.
The second quarter saw extremely stiff defense from both teams until the 2:34 mark when Johnson found White for another diving touchdown grab, this time from 22 yards out.
On the ensuing drive, after gaining no yards on the first play from scrimmage, first-year Mounties head coach Jamie Mitchell dialed up a reverse pass play that ended with wide receiver Alfonso Weathers finding his quarterback streaking down the right side of the field for an 85-yard touchdown pass.
The Guerrero PAT closed the gap and made the score 20-13 Clay Chalkville. Not to be outdone, the Cougar offense took the ball down the field and after a 63-yard run by Edward Osley got them inside the 10, Johnson punched it in from the 7-yard line to put his team up by another score. Van Winkle’s PAT made it 27-13 with 18 seconds left in the half.
After holding Shades Valley to a three-and-out on the first drive of the third quarter, Johnson found a new target in hybrid wide receiver/tight end Antonio Miles. Miles
took what looked to be a decent gain, broke a few tackles and wound up with a 42-yard touchdown reception. The PAT was good and now the visiting team found
themselves up 34-13.
The Mounties would not go away, however. After a big gain of 52 yards on a pass from Woods to wide receiver Joseph Lewis, Shades Valley found themselves inside the Cougar 5-yard line. From there, running back Jordan Pearson punched it into the end zone, closing the gap once again.
After a 45-minute lightning delay, both teams came back onto the field but neither would score again in the quarter.
The fourth quarter saw stout defense from both teams with the only score coming with 8:49 left in the game, when Van Winkle connected on a 32-yard field goal to seal the deal.
“It was good to be back to some since of normalcy. This is normal. It’s fun to get back out here and do what we love to do,” said Coach Drew Gilmer when asked how it
felt to get back on the field with his team. “(the opening kickoff) was really big for us. It set the tempo. There were some good blocks and squirrel (Marquarius White) found
a seam.
In his first start, Khalib Johnson went 7 of 15 passing for 142 yards and three touchdowns and did not turn the ball over. Gilmer said, “I thought he did a phenomenal
job. He controlled our offense and was the leader of it and setting the pace and example for what we want. I’m super proud of him.”
While he did not reach the end zone, Edward Ousley had 138 yards on 12 carries (11.5 yards per carry) and Marquarius White finished the night with 4 catches for 54 yards and two touchdowns while Antonio Miles finished the night with two catches for 56 yards and a touchdown.
Clay Chalkville travels to 0-1 Hueytown next week while Shades Valley hosts 0-1 Pinson.