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While other playoff-bound Class 6A, Region 5 schools slipped up on the road this week, the Homewood Patriots closed the regular season with a 34-14 win at Tuscaloosa County High School’s Wildcat Field.
“I wanted to make sure we had momentum going into the playoffs next week, and that’s what we did,” Homewood head coach Ben Berguson said.
Tuscaloosa County entered its Senior Night looking to avoid only the second 0-10 season in the program’s 93-year history. The last was in 1975.
The Patriots opened the game passing but stuck to the ground game after Justen Little picked off a Carson Griffis pass on the opening possession. Homewood held the Wildcats to a 40-yard field goal try, which missed short and to the left. TCHS held again, but mishandled a punt return, which Jacob Biles recovered at the Wildcat 45 to give the Patriots a spark.
That spark was all Homewood need to get its run game going. Derrick Underwood Jr., who finished with a season-high 213 yards rushing, hit four runs for 38 yards to set up first-and-goal at the 3. Griffis punched the ball in from there for the first Patriot touchdown, 7-0.
County’s senior running back, Fred Evans, carried the Wildcats on a 46-yard scoring drive to open the second quarter, evening the score, 7-7, on a 2-yard touchdown run. Evans led the Wildcats with 67 yards rushing in the game.
Homewood, which finished the 298 rushing yards, continued to pound the ball on the ground. Griffis found a whole on a quarterback keeper up the middle and strolled to the end zone untouched from 25 yards out give the Patriots a 14-7 halftime lead.
“I’m really happy with our O-line. I really didn’t think we were going to be able to run the ball like that tonight,” Berguson said. “Vestavia had trouble running it on them last week, so we actually came out throwing the ball early, and then we found out we could run it.”
Roger Castro gave the Patriots some insurance with a 10-yard field goal on their first drive of the third quarter. TCHS drove down to the Homewood 30 but turned the ball over on downs.
Underwood hit a 57 yard run, his second big gain of the second half, to put the Patriots back in the red zone. Griffis finished the drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Alec Marsch. Castro’s PAT made it 24-7.
Similar to the second quarter, Tuscaloosa County opened the fourth quarter with a scoring drive, as Sam Cooper hit Malik Smith on a 39-yard touchdown pass with 10:15 to play. Berguson appeared to have pulled Underwood after he picked up 112 yards rushing in the third quarter, but put the senior back in the game on the next possession. He collected 39 more yards on four plays to set up a 43-yard field goal. With Castro out due to an injury, freshman Connor Smith came on and hit his first varsity field goal with 6:56 to play.
“I just pulled him up from the freshman team this week (Tuesday),” Berguson said. “He’s going to be great down the road.”
Underwood exited the game after the drive to finish with 270 all-purpose yards.
“It was one of our best offensive line games,” said Underwood. “I was just looking for the holes, trusting my line, following where the coach tells me to run and using my vision…Now we have a lot of confidence. We hope to build on this.”
Griffis added another late touchdown run to make it 34-14. Sophomore QB Ty Hatcher took over in the final minutes to set up in victory formation for the Patriots.
The Patriots held Tuscaloosa County to 3.5 yards per play in the game, including 2.9 per play in the first half. Griffin Gentry led the Homewood defense with seven tackles and a sack.
Homewood (8-2) will host Lee-Huntsville in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs Friday, Nov. 6.
