Cougars suffer narrow defeat in battle of reigning state champs

ALABASTER -- A clash of champions lived up to its billing on Friday night and delivered a riveting fourth quarter. Thompson High School held off Clay-Chalkville 17-14 in a defensive affair.

The Cougars (5-1) turned the ball over four times while the Warriors (4-2) did so only once.

“We made a few too many mistakes to win a big game like this,” said Clay-Chalkville head coach Drew Gilmer. “We will go back and watch the film from this and see the mistakes that we have to clean up.”

A.J. Green of Thompson scored the lone touchdown of the third quarter on a 21-yard scamper a few plays after Clay-Chalkville’s signal-caller Kamari McClellan threw his first interception of the night. The score gave the Warriors a 17-7 lead and they were driving to conclude the third quarter.

The Cougars defense held strong to open the final frame and forced a punt. Two plays later, Aaron Osley broke through the front seven, made a safety miss, and then was off to the races for a 77-yard touchdown run. The junior running back brought the score to 17-14 with 9:26 showing on the clock.

Each side traded punts, which benefited Thompson. The home team began near midfield and a pass from Zach Sims to Deuce Oliver was set to move the sticks, but the Cougars defense poked the ball free and recovered.

Clay-Chalkville’s offense started at its own 44-yard line with 4:45 left to play. Osley made another key run, picking up 12 yards on a third-and-2. That was followed by two defensive penalties by Thompson that pushed the Cougars up to the 12-yard line.

Three straight runs moved the ball to the 4-yard line and forced a fourth down. The Cougars opted to go for it and showed a four-man backfield with Alabama commit Jaylen Mbakwe behind center. The junior wide receiver took the shotgun snap, turned right, but was dragged down from behind by Seth Hampton and Vinicius Pires as he reached the line of scrimmage. The turnover on downs happened with 2:23 to play.

The Cougars would get one more chance after forcing Thompson to punt it away and had the ball with 1:18 to play at the opponent’s 34. The first pass by McClellan was intercepted by Jake Ivie, and that ultimately ended the game.

“Our defense played outstanding tonight,” added Gilmer. “They kept us in the ball game, but offensively we struggled.”

The Thompson defense made its mark early. McClellan was pressured on third down of the opening possession and had the ball stripped away. Peter Woods jumped on it at the 14-yard line.

The Warriors offense failed to take advantage of the field position as they were quickly forced to kick a field goal from 30 yards that was missed.

Thompson would get on the board with its next offensive possession. Green burst down the left hashes, breaking through arm tackles and then dashing 56 yards for the opening score of the game. The Warriors took a 7-0 lead at the 7:05 mark of the opening quarter.

Clay-Chalkville failed to gain a new set of downs on any of its four first quarter possessions.

Thompson marched down the field as the first quarter was coming to a close. The opening play of the second quarter was a fantastic effort from Sims who evaded pressure and ripped a strike to Kolby Hearn along the back of the end zone. However, the 33-yard touchdown was called back due to a holding and the Warriors had to settle for a 35-yard field goal by John McGuire on the drive, extending their lead to 10-0 a little over a minute into the second quarter.

The two teams each had to settle for punts for a couple drives until the Cougars got the ball with 1:19 remaining in the half.

McClellan completed a pair of passes to push the away team up to the home 37-yard line. He turned to Mario Craver for the 10th time in the half and the junior wideout cutback, made a defender miss, and then sprinted behind a downfield blocker to score.

Clay-Chalkville slashed the deficit to 10-7 going into halftime.

The teams were near even in yardage as the Cougars outgained the home side 281-261.

McClellan finished the game 15-for-31 for 179 yards passing. Osley picked up 123 yards on 13 touches with the rushing score. Craver finished with a game-high nine catches for 129 yards and the score.

Sims went 16-for-23 on the evening for 137 yards passing. Green continued his hot streak after a four-touchdown effort against Spain Park. The junior running back totaled 150 yards on 30 touches with the pair of touchdowns.

The loss snapped a 20-game winning streak for the Cougars and was also the first loss for the program to Thompson in three matchups.