IRONDALE, Alabama -- The #1 Clay-Chalkville Cougars scored 31 second half points to go on and defeat #2 Shades Valley 59-27 in a Class 6A, Region 6 contest. The Cougars quarterback Ty Pigrome threw for four touchdowns and ran for another in this Saturday morning game that was rescheduled due to bad weather on Friday night at the Frank A. Nix Memorial Athletic Complex.
Clay-Chalkville (7-0, 4-0) used some big pressure from the Cougars defensive front that played havoc to the Shades Valley passing game. "Coach Coleman owes those guys up front some pizza on Thursday," said Cougars head coach Jerry Hood. "Unbelievable job, you could see our kids confidence on defense building and at the end, they physically took over."
The Cougars had five sacks in the game and caused problems for the Mounties. "We kept working hard during practice on our pass rush and it paid off tonight," said Cougars defensive lineman Kendall Jones. "We wanted to put pressure on the quarterback, but wanted to keep him in the pocket. I though we did a good job of clogging the holes and putting pressure on the quarterback."
The game started from Friday night with the Cougars at the Shades Valley 11-yard line. After a false start on the Cougars, the first pass play on Saturday, Pigrome hit T.J. Simmons for a 16-yard touchdown pass to give Clay-Chalkville an early 7-0 lead and the scoring was on.
On the Shades Valley (6-1, 3-1) first possession, a Mounties fumble was recovered by Cougars linebacker Jarrod Reedus. Clay-Chalkville scored again on a Pigrome to Eric Blockum 19-yard touchdown pass and the Cougars led 14-0 very early in the game. Shades Valley cut the lead in half when Keith Mixon ran 29-yards for a Mounties touchdown.
With 5:24 left in the first quarter, Alvin Gordon picks off a Cougars pass and returns in 15 yards but fumbled it back to Clay-Chalkville. A few plays later, on a 4th and five play on the Mounties 5-yard line, the Cougars line up for a field goal try. On the snap, Reedus shovelled the ball over to A.J. Walker behind a line of blockers and tumbled in the end zone for a Cougars touchdown. With the score, Clay-Chalkville goes up 21-7 when Shades Valley had a chance after the interception to tie the game. One of the key turn plays of the game, the interception followed by the fumble.
The Mounties answered back though as Mixon raced 58-yards for his second touchdown of the game. Mixon kept the game close through out the first half. With 1:39 left in the first quarter, Pigrome connected to Nico Collins on a over the shoulder grad for a 34-yard touchdown and kept the Cougars lead to 28-13.
Shades Valley came right back to cut the lead again, RaShad Louie found A.J. Conwell on a 11-yard touchdown play and that made the score 28-20 midway through the second quarter. That was scoring in the first half and Clay-Chalkville led 28-20 at halftime.
With Clay-Chalkville up only eight points at the half, Coach Hood had an inspired halftime speech because the Cougars went on the 31-7 run in the second half.
With 5:59 in the third quarter, linebacker Nick Battle picked off a Shades Valley pass and rumbled 20-yards for the Clay-Chalkville touchdown and started to turn the tide for the Cougars. "The thing that I'm most impressed with is our defense," added Hood. "We gave up 27 but they have been averaging over 40 points a game. This was an outstanding job and so proud of our defense." With the pick-6, Clay-Chalkville led 35-20.
With 3:12 left in the third quarter, here comes the Mounties and Mixon. The Mississippi commitment ran 56-yards up the middle for a touchdown and cut the lead to 35-27, but that was all the scoring left for the Mounties in the second half. Mixon carries the Mounties for much of three quarters with 173 yards on 15 carries and three touchdowns. Also, he added seven receptions for 61 yards. "We didn't play well in the second half," said Mounties head coach Bill Smith. "They handled the adversity better than we did. I give all the credit to Clay-Chalkville. We hung with them a little bit, but they pulled away in the fourth quarter."
With 2:48 left in the third quarter, Art Smith made the run of the night. Getting bumped around but not tackled out of bounds, Smith broke tackles and raced 58-yards for the touchdown. That put Clay-Chalkville up two scores and the Cougars put the gas peddle down on offense and off they went. Smith lost his mother around three weeks ago has been truly an inspiration to his team and coaches. "Unbelievable character from that young man," said Hood. "He is a great kid and has done a great job for us." Smith had blocked three kicks this season, two in one game.
In the forth quarter, Clay-Chalkville scored three more times. One on a Pigrome to Simmons 23-yard touchdown. Patrick Millican kicked a 31-yard field goal and Pigrome scored on a 4-yard touchdown run to close out the win for Clay-Chalkville. "We have been working hard in practice for this," said the Cougars QB Pigrome. "Our receivers are playing awesome running great routes and catching the ball." Pigrome finished the day with some incredible numbers. The junior quarterback completed 15-of-22 passing for 269 yards & 4 touchdowns, two interceptions along with 119 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown.
Senior running back Terelle West didn't find the end zone but he carried the ball for 90 yards on 17 carries along with 91 yards on four receptions. T.J. Simmons had 4 receptions for 78 yards and two scores for Clay-Chalkville.
Up next, Clay-Chalkville will host Woodlawn while Shades Valley will travel to Huffman.
