By Erik Harris, sports editor
PINSON — It’s hard to narrow it down to a single person.
It took all 11 dudes to do what the Clay-Chalkville defense did last Thursday night in Kimberly. Coming off a three-week hiatus, the Cougars (7-0, 5-0) looked well rested in a 45-0 Region 6 shutout of Mortimer Jordan.
Drew Gilmer’s defense silenced everything Mortimer Jordan threw or ran at it on the road. For its efforts, the entire Clay-Chalkville defense is awarded Tribune Player of the Week honors following Week 7 play.
“I thought our guys came out and played like we haven’t played football in a while and they were just hungry to play,” said Gilmer after the win. “I thought we came out and played physical. I thought we did a really good job tackling and I thought we did a really good job up front offensively.”
Their physicality was obvious, as the Cougars worked into the backfield for 11 stops at or behind the line of scrimmage. Mortimer Jordan finished with 87 yards of offense on 11 drives, including 32 yards rushing on 30 attempts.
The shutout victory represents Clay-Chalkville’s first such outing of 2020 and third since October of 2019. Mortimer Jordan’s offensive possessions went as follows:
- three-and-out
- three-and-out
- three-and-out
- punt
- end of half
- three-and-out
- three-and-out
- lost fumble
- punt
- lost fumble
- end of game
Up next for the Cougars is a visit from fourth-ranked Pinson Valley this Friday in a game that will decide the Class 6A, Region 6 champion and runner-up.
Previous Tribune Player of the Week recipients:
- Springville quarterback Pearson Baldwin
- Leeds receiver Joshua Ruff
- Hewitt-Trussville running back Armoni Goodwin
- Pinson Valley quarterback Zach Pyron
- Hewitt-Trussville kicker Ethan Wilson
- Leeds running back Rametrius Yelverton
