Hueytown’s defense held visiting Theodore scoreless in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs Friday, doing just enough on offense to claim a 14-0 victory.

Defensive linemen Keith Green, Kole Caldwell, Jordyn Jackson and Christian Williams teed off on an overmatched Bobcats offensive line in the first half, racking up three sacks of quarterback Crishon Overton in the first half and holding Theodore to just 5 yards total before intermission.

“The D-line has been our foundation. We’ve built on it. That whole group, we have a fair amount of experience,” said Hueytown head coach Greg Patterson. “They love the moment. They’ve played really well all year. We dropped three games early to three really good football teams.”

The Golden Gophers had struggles of their own, putting up only 35 rushing yards in the first half, but they marched into the locker room with a 7-0 lead thanks to a 42-yard touchdown pass from Hebron Ellington to Dacorion Thomas with a little more than 5 minutes to go in the second quarter.

“It feels good,” Thomas said. “My team’s been telling me all week that they believe in me, so when the time comes you have to make that play. We lost to them last year, so we just had to come out here and handle business. It’s every week. We ain’t done, though. We ain’t done.”

Theodore head coach Steve Mask turned to senior Cameron Rigby for a spark in the second half, and the Bobcats threatened to score until the Golden Gophers forced a stop on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. Theodore went 0-for-4 on fourth-down attempts for the game and was forced to punt on seven straight possessions in the first half, including five three-and-outs.

Not so for the Golden Gophers. With 2:08 left in the game and still leading by the game’s only touchdown, Hueytown’s Anthony Robinson went up the gut for a touchdown on fourth-and-1 from the Bobcat’s 2-yard line for the final margin.

The game was a rematch of a 2022 second-round 6A playoff game, which Theodore won 29-18. This time, however, the Golden Gophers pitched a shutout and frustrated the Bobcats all game long.

“You gotta score when you get the ball on the 1-yard line,” Mask said. “The bottom line is, give coach Patterson a lot of credit. They wanted it a whole hell of a lot more than we did … we had short fields all night, but we couldn’t do anything with it.”

Play of the game: The third-quarter stop on fourth-and-1 by Hueytown’s defense put an end to Theodore’s best chance at a score.

By the numbers: Hueytown’s Ellington was 3-for-5 for 63 yards, while Thomas had two catches for 52 of those yards and a touchdown. The Golden Gophers rushed 36 times for 92 yards, totaling eight first downs and were penalized seven times for 70 yards. Between Overton and Rigby, Theodore was 5-for-12 passing for 56 yards. Miami commit Cam Pruitt had three catches for 40 yards. The Bobcats rushed 28 times for a total of 13 yards.

Game ball: Caldwell was a massive presence on the defensive line.

Coachspeak: “Keith Green, Kole Caldwell, Jordyn Jackson, and Christian Williams, they’re just our anchor. They’re who we depend on, and they’ve been that all year.” – Patterson

“I hate to say it, but they were more physical than we were.” – Mask

They said it: “We just always thought we had the right game plan for them. And we found out on Friday when we did what we had to do.” – Jackson

“It feels good, like you put your team on your back a little bit. Our offense was struggling a little bit, but the defense had their back, so we had to step it up at the time.” – Caldwell

“We see a lot of big offensive linemen. We don’t worry about size. We just go out there and do our thing.” – Green

Next week: Hueytown faces Benjamin Russell in the second round of the 6A playoffs.