McAdory Takes Down Brookwood, Remains Perfect In Region Play

The McAdory Yellow Jackets (4-3, 3-0) went on the road to play the Brookwood Panthers (1-6, 0-4) tonight and emerged victorious, winning a big 6A Region 4 game 35-13.

The Yellow Jackets jumped on top of the Panthers from the very start scoring on the game's second play from scrimmage. Junior quarterback Cameron Shepherd opened up the game with a 48-yard pass to senior receiver Savion Hadley on the first play and sophomore running back Rod Thomas capped off the drive with an easy 2-yard touchdown.

Brookwood was able to respond on the subsequent drive with a long, methodical touchdown drive. The Panthers marched for a 19-play drive that ate up the rest of the first quarter and culminated in a 5-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Kobie Humphries to junior running back Jake Smithson on a 4th and goal play.

It didn't take long for McAdory to answer as Shepherd found Thomas and Hadley on three passes to put the Yellow Jackets back on the goal line. Thomas payed off the McAdory drive again with a short touchdown run to move the Yellow Jackets ahead 14-6.

From there the game was never in doubt. McAdory forced the Panthers offense to punt, fumble and punt on its final three drives of the second quarter and the Yellow Jackets offense scored a touchdown on each of its remaining three possessions.

"We felt like coming into the season our wide outs were very explosive players. Cam is coming into his own a little bit and man, what a great time for that to happen?" said Coach Sessions. "With the stretch run of region games, we're going to need to make some plays like that down the field. You can't just run the football and win anymore so we still have confidence in our running game but obviously for him to push the ball down the field, get a little confidence on the perimeter guys, that's big."

Shepherd found Jervontae Gray on a 49-yard score, Miles Burton on a 5-yard score and Cameron Harris on a 41-yard score to take the Yellow Jackets into halftime with a 35-6 lead.

Shepherd finished his night completing 8-of-10 passes for 255 yards and three touchdowns. Thomas rushed for nine yards and two touchdowns he also added 17 yards receiving on one catch. Hadley hauled in four receptions for 143 yards,

McAdory Coach Bart Sessions opted to play his second string in the second half in order to rest his starters and allow his backups to gain experience.

Brookwood was able to find the endzone in the fourth quarter after a 12-play drive that ended in a 1-yard Humphries QB-sneak to close the final score to 35-13.

The Panthers were led offensively by sophomore running back CJ Cummins, he toted the rock 23 times for 62 yards. Smithson carried the ball eight times for 49 yards.

Curtis Weatherspoon, Jaiden Wilson and Dailyn Kelley all recovered one Brookwood fumble to get the ball back to the Yellow Jacket offense.

Brookwood's sophomore linebacker Ethan Reid recovered the Panthers only turnover of the game by falling on a fumble in the fourth quarter.

Brookwood is still looking for its first win of the season but Coach Mike Bramblett is confident in the process of the program he's building.

"It takes something special for these kids to be willing to commit and do the things we're asking them to do and to work the way that we're demanding that they work to build a program," said Bramblett. "I'm sure there's kids saying 'I want to wait, when they start winning I'm going to play' but it makes it hard for the kids that we have, to stay focused on where we're going. But they understand that we're building a program, that we're going to coach you hard and that makes it tough because they don't always understand that because so many of them are in the ninth and tenth grade."

Next week McAdory will host Hillcrest (5-1, 2-1) in a big region game.

Brookwood will hit the road and play Paul Bryant (3-4, 1-2) next week.