Cole Gamble leads Mountain Brook past Parker
Cole Gamble topped 200 total yards as Class 6A, No. 5 Mountain Brook earned a 35-6 region victory over Parker on Thursday at Major Brown Memorial Stadium in Birmingham.
Gamble scored three of the Spartans’ five touchdowns, rushing for scores of 4, 72 and 6 yards. His 72-yard run down the right sideline put the Spartans (6-1 overall, 4-0 in Region 5) ahead 21-0 in the second quarter.
“The backs did a great job blocking,” Mountain Brook coach Chris Yeager said. “When Cole didn’t get the ball, Cole did a great job blocking, and you had Will Waldrop and Jack King blocking for Cole.”
Waldrop added a 1-yard run for the Spartans, and John Colvin threw a 48-yard touchdown pass to Clark Sanderson.
Star of the game: It was Gamble, a junior, who had 11 carries for 154 yards and three touchdowns and caught two short passes that he turned into 52 yards through the air.
Plays of the Game: There were two big plays in this one. Gamble’s 72-yard run was a big moment, and Parker’s Na’eem Offord, who normally lines up as a receiver, took a snap at quarterback and sprinted 80 yards down the left sideline for the Herd’s only touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Stat sheet: Mountain Brook had 203 rushing yards and 176 pass yards. Colvin completed 11-of-15 passes with a touchdown. Sanderson had six catches for 94 yards. Offord had 86 yards rushing for the Herd.
By the numbers: 16, consecutive region wins for Mountain Brook since dropping to Class 6A in 2020. … 6, consecutive wins by Mountain Brook in the series over Parker.
Coachspeak: “The great thing about the loss (two weeks ago at Hoover) is that you rock along and say you’ve got to get this fixed, but what that did was create a sense of urgency. We made progress in repairing a lot of things.” – Yeager
They said it …: “We put a lot into last week (a bye week). We changed a lot of stuff up. We watched film. We corrected our mistakes from the loss and did our job.” – Gamble
“We’re getting in a groove. Good win in region play. We’ve got Mortimer Jordan next week. We’re just playing it week by week.” – Gamble
What’s next?: Mountain Brook travels to Mortimer Jordan and Parker (4-4, 2-3) is at Minor as the teams continue Class 6A, Region 5 play.