Clay-Chalkville High School has entered the championship game at No. 116 in the National Rankings.
By Josh Bean For AHSAA
At the AHSAA Super 7 Class 6 State Football Championship game at Birmingham Defensive Stadium on Friday night, everyone hoped that Clay-Chalkville would get the ball back to Edward Osley.
It doesn’t matter.
With a six-point lead and a fourth-and-1 in his 45s in less than five minutes, Clay-Chuckville coach Drew Gilmer kept the ball in the hands of his senior running back. It was an easy decision.
“Did anyone suspect what we were going to do there?” Gilmer says. “We believe we have boys to do those plays. That’s what we’ve done all year. We are not going to change anything. ”
After being pressured about whether he was considering painting, Gilmour was straightforward. “No, I never thought about it.”
Osle smashed a 20-yard run to keep the drive alive – and Earl Woods, a quarterback from Huatown, was pushed away a little longer. Meanwhile, Cougars QB Khalib Johnson threw a 36-yard touchdown to Mario Craver after two plays for a game-clinching touchdown.
The heroines of late play in Friday night’s AHSAA Super 7 Class 6A Championship game beat the Cougars (15-0) 46-42 against Hueytown (13-2).
“When it’s time for a crisis, someone has to make a play,” Craver said.
Clay-Chalkville has won its first state championship since 2014 and is third overall, while Hueytown (13-2) has fallen to one in the embarrassment of winning its first football title. This is the first time two Jefferson County schools have met in the final of an AHSAA State Football Championship game.
The Cougars have handed over both defeats to Hueytown this season, also beating the Golden Goffers 57-40 on 27 August and Hueytown has picked up 13 wins in the rematch.
Woods threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Vince Tucker in Friday’s championship game at 34-all 8:09. In the next kickoff, Clay-Chalkville kicker Matthew Vasquez’s bouncing kick bounced off a Huatown lineman and the Cougars delivered an onside kick.
Whiton coach Greg Patterson called the kick a turning point in the game. Gilmer said it was not planned.
“It just so happened that we hit one of them and it came back to us,” Gilmer said. “Luck is better than good, I guess.”
Clay-Chalkville scored nine yards in three games, leaving Gilmour with the decision to return the ball to Woods or go down to fourth. He chose to give the ball to Oslo.
Osley finished carrying 28 for 152 yards and five touchdowns. He won the MVP award for the game after scoring 33, 13, 2, 11, and 27 yards.
Hueytown drove 71 yards in 13 plays after Craver’s touchdown catch, Coleman scored a 1-yard run with 20 seconds left, and Jachel Royer’s 2-point run made it 46-42.
Nathan Owens of Clay-Chalkville originally recovered Huatown’s onside kick effort to end the game.
“Most of the time we’re on the winning side this year,” Patterson said. “Twice we were not against the same team.”
The game featured two offenses averaging 48 or more points per game and they did not disappoint in the 2021 Super 7 final. The three-day event drew a record 62,544 people, including 28,182 from Friday’s three games.
Woods has a 26-for-44 pass for 246 yards, including a 66-yard TD pass from D’Andre Coleman and a 7-yard pass from Tucker. Woods added 112 yards and drove a 2-yard TD on 31 carries. Coleman collected 15 catches for 149 yards and added two 1-yard TD runs.
Johnson completed 15 of 19 passes for 251 yards and two touchdowns. Owens caught a 15-yard TD pass from Johnson, and Rouge scored 7-yard runs and eight catches in 83 yards. The two teams combined for 145 offensive games, 45 first downs, and 804 total yards.
“How many nights for high school football, especially in Jefferson County,” Gilmer said. “I couldn’t be happier. That can’t happen with a good group of young people.”
“We never doubted ourselves,” Johnson added.
