By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
TRUSSVILLE – As has been stated before, the Tribune coverage area consists of eight high schools and, of those, seven of the football teams representing those schools made it to the 2023 playoffs. After Friday night, only four remain.
The Springville Tigers’ magical season came to an end with a 31-7 loss to the Guntersville Wildcats. The Center Point Eagles’ late-season struggles continued as they fell to Hartselle by a score of 28-18. Finally, the Pinson Valley Indians, under first-year head coach Gentrell Eatman, rose from the dead and made it to the playoffs, but were defeated 42-7 by Muscle Shoals. Congratulations to those three teams who were good enough to make it to the playoffs.
That leaves four Tribune teams remaining in the playoffs. Below are the details for each game.
Hewitt Trussville Huskies (8-3) – The Huskies throttled Bob Jones in round one at Husky Stadium, beating them 56-14 in a game that they could have likely named their score in. This Hewitt team has been up and down all season, but if they can be up for a few more games, we may be looking at rematches with the likes of Thompson and even Central Phenix City. In round two, the Huskies get a rematch with Hoover, this time on their home turf. In their last meeting, the Huskies beat the Bucs in Hoover by a score of 28-7. Hoover has improved a good bit since then, even backing their way into the playoffs where they took on James Clements in round one and looked like the Hoover Bucs of old, beating them 41-16 to advance. Hoover is now 5-6 and looks for revenge on Friday night at Husky Stadium. The winner gets the winner of the Thompson vs Vestavia game. Hewitt is 5-22 all-time against Hoover, winning the last game 28-7.
Clay Chalkville Cougars (11-0) – The Cougars made short work of their first-round opponents, the Cullman Bearcats, running through them 49-7 in a game that was 49-0 at halftime. Like the afore-mentioned Huskies, Clay could have likely named their score. In the second round, the Cougars draw the Mountain Brook Spartans, who are no pushover at all. The Spartans are sitting at 8-3 after their 35-14 first-round win over Buckhorn. The game will be played at Clay Chalkville on Friday night and the winner will face the winner of the Muscle Shoals vs Fort Payne game. The Cougars are 3-8 all-time against Mountain Brook with a 24-18 win the last time they played in the 2021 playoffs.
Moody Blue Devils (9-2) – The Blue Devils used smothering defense on Friday night to beat Scottsboro 28-10 and move to 9-2 on the season. Their second-round opponent will be the Russellville Golden Tigers, who are also 9-2 after their first-round defeat of Fairfield. The two will meet in Moody at Bill Morris Stadium (The Bill) and you can bet the buses and The Bill will be rocking on Friday night. The winner of this one gets the winner of the next game, Leeds vs Ramsay. Moody and Russellville have played twice with the Golden Tigers winning both of those games. The last meeting was a 30-0 win in 2005.
Leeds Greenwave (9-2) – The Greenwave have played outstanding defense all season save for one or two games. Friday was no different as they laid waste to Arab at Homer Smiles Field in the first round of the playoffs. Leeds has a tough draw in round two with the Ramsay Rams. Ramsay sits at 9-2 just like Leeds, but their only losses are to 7A Auburn and 6A Parker, who are both high seeded playoff teams in their respective classes and both of those games were close. Ramsay is a 5A powerhouse but Leeds has just the team that can beat them. Ramsay beat their first-round opponent, West Point, 50-0. No predictions here just yet, but this one should be a good one. The two will tie up at Lawson Field in Birmingham, Alabama on Friday night for the right to play either Moody or Russellville. Leeds and Ramsay have met only three times with Ramsay winning two of those, including last year’s playoff win 26-19 over the Greenwave.
Once again, we wish all of our teams the best and look forward to having four teams remaining next week!