Patriots and Hueytown battle for second seed

Last week’s game was unordinary in every sense.

Homewood High (4-4, 3-2 Class 6A Region 5) intercepted three passes, recovered a muffed punt, had a field goal blocked and returned for a touchdown and blocked two consecutive punts and returned both of them for touchdowns in its wild 27-21 win over Shades Valley.

Two of those picks came from CD Daniels in the final minutes of the game, more than likely saving the game with his heroics.

“It was a tough one. They had a big running back. We had to fit onto what he was doing,” Daniels said following the game. “We just played hard tonight. I had to make a big play after missing some tackles early on in the game. Our defense had to step up tonight. It was a fun win.”

Shades Valley out-gained Homewood in the first half, 188-43 in total yards, but the Patriots held a 14-7 lead thanks to the pair of blocked punts.

“[The two punt blocks for touchdowns] were huge, because they had the ball so much in the first half, and we just weren’t getting any touches. That was an easy way for us to get points,” Homewood head coach Ben Berguson said. “I told our guys at halftime we needed to take full advantage of every possession we got in the second half, because I didn’t know how many more times we’d get the ball.”

Shades Valley scored the next two touchdowns to take the lead, and Homewood followed with the final two scores to recover and win the game.

“I’m really proud of our kids and the effort to come back. They had a huge momentum swing and we just fought back and won the ball game,” Berguson said.

Chestin Jones and Nick McCoy each had 58 yards rushing to lead Homewood, while quarterback Ty Hatcher finished with 58 yards on 6-of-11 passing. TyShawn Buckner had three catches for 49 yards and Fred Williams finished with five catches for 29 yards.

With the win, the Patriots secured a playoff berth, and now travel to Hueytown on Friday at 7 p.m., with eyes on a home playoff game in the first round.

The game carries a pretty significant weight, in terms of a potential playoff push. With a loss, Homewood faces the possibility of falling to the No. 4 seed in Region 5, which would pit the Patriots against Region 6 champion Minor in the first round. The Tenacious Tigers have taken Class 6A by storm, starting out 8-0. Their closest margin of victory was 24 points in a 52-28 win over Gardendale.