The Hoover Bucs defeated the Mountain Brook Spartans 28-21 in a huge Region 6 contest at Regions Park. With the win, the Bucs move to first place in Region 6 and hand the Spartans their first loss of the season. "I'm proud of these kids, coaches, and our community," said Bucs Head Coach Josh Niblett. "We played hard all night, Mountain Brook played hard all night and it was a great high school football game." If Hoover beats Vestavia next week, they will win the Region 6 crown.

The key to the game that we saw before this game would kickoff would be if Hoover could throw the football around the field and move the chains tonight and they did. Hoover QB Simon Propst was 12 of 20 for 180 yards tonight. Also, they won the special teams battle with a block punt and a punt fumble recovery. "I told the kids all week, it could come down to a couple of plays on special teams," added Niblett. "We were able to capitalize and very opportunistic with the turnovers tonight. We have to keep fighting everyday to get better and just try to improve everyday and if we do that we will be good in what we do."

With 6:08 in the 1st quarter, Hoover fumbled a punt and set Mountain Brook up on the Hoover 22 yard line. A few plays later, Mountain Brook QB Judd Golsan hit Conner Bynon in the corner of the end zone on 10-yard play. With the Daniel Barstein kick, the Spartans led 7-0 and look to knock off the Bucs and tried to end an 11-game losing streak.

But with :03 left in the 1st quarter, Hoover defensive back Justin Sly picked off a Spartan pass to give the Bucs some good field position. With 9:50 left in the 2nd quarter, Hoover QB Propst hit Josh Magee on a 25-yard passing play. With the PAT by K Dylan Breeding the score was now tied at 7-7.

Here's the part where special teams comes into play, with Mountain Brook punting, Hoover DB Sly blocked the kick, it went straight in the air and Antwan Williams snatched it in the air and took it for 40-yards for a Bucs touchdown. With the PAT by Breeding, the Bucs went on top 14-7 and that is they way till halftime.

With 3:14 left in the 3rd quarter, Mountain Brook muffed a punt and Hoover junior Leon Carlton recovered the fumble on the Mountain Brook 29. On the next play, Propst hit Josh Magee over the middle for 26-yards down at the Mountain Brook 3-yard line. "We had two meltdowns on special teams and they executed well on them," said Spartan Head Coach Chris Yeager. "There three phases in every game, offense, defense and special teams and tonight we went back and forth on offense and defense, but we lost out on special teams tonight and we have to do a better job of that." On the next play, Propst took it over center for a 3-yard TD run. With the Breeding PAT, the Bucs led 21-7 with 2:19 left in the 3rd quarter.

With Mountain Brook down two scores and the running game of J.D. Marsh only 59 yards on 22 carries, Golsan placed the running game on his shoulders and took two runs off left tackle to take the ball to the Hoover 24 yard line with the end of the third quarter. With 11:04 left in the game, the Spartans ran a reverse where Marsh handed back to WR Bynon for a 7-yard TD run. With the PAT from Barstein, the Hoover lead was only 7 points.

The Hoover offense responded in the middle of the 4th quarter when Propst found WR Gerald Bryant streaking across the middle of the field for a 45-yard pass and to give the Bucs first and goal inside the 10-yard line. "That was a great play," said QB Propst. "I'm just glad we connected on it and was excited about it." Two plays later, Propst ran in from 3-yards and with the PAT from Breeding, the Hoover Bucs went up 28-14.

But Mountain Brook was not done, on several pass plays from Golsan (17 of 25 for 145 yards & 2 TD's) hit Bradford Houseal on a 19-yard pass play on a 4th & 8 play. With the Barstein 30-yard extra point due to holding, the score was 28-21 Hoover.

The Bucs tried to run out the clock in the last 4 minutes of the game with one first down, but had to turn it back over to Mountain Brook for one more time. The Spartans moved the ball to the Hoover 32-yard line. With 3rd and one, the Spartans tried Marsh around the right end and Hoover stacked him up for no yards. So that left a 4th and goal at the 32-yard line. And with Marsh trying the right end again, the whole Hoover defense held him short of the first down marker. "I couldn't tell you who hit him first," said Bucs linebacker John Propst. "It seemed like we all just got to the ball. We came out playing fast tonight and we didn't do that last week against Spain Park. We did a good job of getting people to the football tonight and that was a key on stopping the run."

Up next, again Hoover plays at Vestavia while Mountain Brook hosts Homewood. The Spartans will have played eight straight Region 6 games this year.