Cougars shut out Briarwood to begin season
BIRMINGHAM — The road to redemption started as smoothly as a Highway 119 drive Friday night for Clay-Chalkville High School.
The Class 6A No. 2 Cougars went into Lions Pride Stadium and came away with a season-opening 31-0 win over Briarwood Christian School, their second shutout of the Lions in as many seasons.
“I thought our kids played hard,” said Clay-Chalkville head coach Drew Gilmer. “I thought they played with a high energy level and left it all out on the field. I’m very proud of them.”
Senior Jaylen Mbakwe, the five-star University of Alabama commit, was the story of the game. Mbakwe, one of the most prolific wide receivers in the country, made the move to quarterback for this season. The southpaw finished an efficient 12-of-18 for 116 yards and a touchdown through the air, while running six times for 64 yards and another score.
“He did good, especially for his first time playing back there,” Gilmer said. “There are some things we’ve got to clean up and stuff like that, but I thought he did a good job managing the offense and using his legs when he needed to to extend plays and get our guys the football.”
After Clay-Chalkville (1-0) and Briarwood traded first-quarter turnovers, Mbakwe connected with Jabari Staples for a 17-yard touchdown to give the Cougars a 7-0 lead. The Cougars took a 14-0 lead when Mbakwe broke free for a 26-yard run down the sideline midway through the second quarter. A 23-yard touchdown run by Taurus Chambers put the Cougars up 21-0 at halftime.
Aaron Osley scored on a 37-yard run and Antone Ellison kicked a 26-yard field goal for the lone 10 points of the second half.
“It’s obviously not the desire we wanted, but did we see improvement? Did we see fight and determination? Absolutely,” said Briarwood head coach Matthew Forester. “I thought our defense played lights-out, especially early. They were really, really good, so that’s something we can buy into, something we can improve on.”
Briarwood (0-1) managed just 35 total yards in the game. Both Will Clark and Josh Thompson saw action at quarterback. Clark finished 1-of-5 for 15 yards and an interception, while Thompson completed 3-of-6 passes for 5 yards. Cooper Higgins led the way with 15 rushing yards, and Sawyer Click caught two passes for 11 yards.
“We’ve got to press in, continue to buy in on offense,” Forester said. “We’ve got to clean up our blocking assignments, and we’ve got to be really good at that. And we will. We’ve got great coaches, got players that I really believe in that work hard and that will do what it takes to be successful.”
Ethan Carr recovered a fumble for Briarwood. Carlos Ivy recovered one of his own eight seconds later for Clay-Chalkville. Rylan Hamm recovered a fumble for Briarwood and Deion Gunn intercepted a pass for the Cougars a play later.
Clay-Chalkville travels to Hueytown next week, while Briarwood travels to Spain Park, which throttled Calera 55-0 on Friday.
“We’re going to get it figured out and we’re going to make some noise,” Forester said. “It’s like yeast, it takes time. We’ll make adjustments, we’ll learn from it, and we’ll be a better team.”