By Gary Lloyd
For The Tribune
With 5:32 left in Friday’s season-opening game between Hewitt-Trussville and Clay-Chalkville, Cougar fans were chanting, “We want 50!”
Just over a minute later, they had it.
Junior running back Stephone Sheffield broke free down the Cougars’ sideline and scampered 39 yards for a touchdown, giving the second-ranked team in Class 6A a 51-10 lead after the extra point. Clay-Chalkville (1-0) won by the same margin after trailing 10-7 at halftime at Jack Wood Stadium.
“We knew that we were going to come out strong and go out there and blow them out,” said Clay-Chalkville junior quarterback Hayden Moore, who threw for 93 yards and two touchdowns while running for 89 and two more scores. “We were going to come out and run it down their throat.”
Sheffield did much of the damage, finishing with 169 yards on just nine carries. He scored on runs of 53 and 39 yards and also raced for a 46-yard gain in the first half. Junior running back Kenterrius Gray added 52 yards and a touchdown on five carries.
The Cougars, who ran just 26 offensive plays in the first half, scored 30 points in the third quarter
. Did Cougars head coach Jerry Hood share any magic words in the locker room?
“Y’all know I don’t have any magic words,” Hood said, jokingly.
Senior wide receiver DeAndre Woods caught three passes for 57 yards and a touchdown. Junior wideout Brian Clark caught a 25-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter.
Lost in the awe of a 51-point output is the Cougars’ defense, which held the Huskies (0-1) to 48 total yards in the second half. A big part of that defense is senior linebacker and UAB commit Brandon Fuller, who finished with a sack and one tackle for loss.
“Brandon is a heck of a football player,” Hood said. “UAB saw it when they came out to practice in the spring. That’s a big-time football player.”
Fellow senior linebacker Taylor Daniels intercepted a pass for the Cougars late in the third quarter, setting up a scoring drive.
Clay-Chalkville opened the second half with a four-play drive capped by an 18-yard touchdown run by Gray. On the next Clay-Chalkville drive, Moore connected with Woods for a 26-yard score, giving the Cougars a 21-10 advantage.
The Cougars went up 23-10 one minute later on a botched Hewitt-Trussville snap for a safety.
Clay got on the board just one minute later when Moore scored on a 4-yard keeper. With 40 seconds remaining in the third, Moore connected with Clark in the back corner of the end zone for a 25-yard score, giving the Cougars a 37-10 lead.
“We’re a second-half team,” Moore said. “We came out in the third quarter and wanted to pound it, pound it, pound it, and we did. It was great.”
The final two touchdowns for Clay-Chalkville were on runs of 53 and 39 yards by Sheffield.
Hewitt-Trussville took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter on a Griffin Wright 26-yard field goal. Midway through the second quarter, senior quarterback Sam Miller hit senior wide receiver DeShawn Ward with a 65-yard bomb down the near sideline for a touchdown. Moore rushed for a 3-yard score to close the gap to 10-7 at halftime.
For the Huskies, Miller completed 6-of-15 passes for 93 yards. He threw one touchdown and was intercepted once. Ward caught two passes for 75 yards and a score.
Senior running back Kyle Thomas led the Huskies’ ground game, carrying seven times for 56 yards. Fellow senior running back Dakota Harwell did not play one offensive snap after a big hit on the opening kickoff forced him to sit out the rest of the game.
The Cougars travel to Class 6A seventh-ranked Oxford on Friday. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
Photo by Anna Malone-The Trussville Tribune