Saraland head coach Jeff Kelly remembers the first question he was asked this summer at high school football media days.

Kelly and the Spartans were coming off the school’s first state football championship.

That question: “Do you think your guys will still be hungry this season?”

That happened in early August. It’s still in Kelly’s mind as his team heads into the Class 6A state semifinals on Friday night against Pike Road in Saraland.

“I know we’ve had an extreme amount of success, but there have been a lot of people who have been waiting on us to check up or not play as motivated or as driven as we should,” he said this week. “I think that as much as anything drives our guys to continue to show everyone week in and week out that playing well is important, practicing well is important. They consistently play with a certain edge that you have to play with to be successful.”

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The result of that consistent edge has been a 13-0 season in which the Spartans have outscored their opponents 680-182. They’ve been ranked No. 1 in the Alabama Sports Writers Association Class 6A poll each week and their closest games were a 31-30 overtime win over Tennessee power Lipscomb Academy in the season opener and last week’s 31-21 win over a previously undefeated Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa team.

They’ve won 19 straight and 27 of 28 overall in the last two years.

“Coach Kelly has done a great job,” Pike Road coach Granger Shook said. “It’s a phenomenal team with a great staff. They are well coached in all three phases. I don’t see a weakness so to speak.”

In addition to a star-studded junior class that includes Texas QB commit KJ Lacey, Alabama commits Ryan Williams and Antonio Coleman and RB Santae McWilliams, Saraland also starts six seniors on offense and eight on defense defending on the personnel grouping. Pike Road is much younger with just two seniors starting on offense.

“They are playing with about 18 seniors. We are playing with about eight,” Shook said. “Coach has been there 13 years and established one of the top programs in the state at any level. I would like to see them compete against some of the top 7A teams. They are that talented, that experienced.

“Our team is battle tested to say the least. We’ve had some close playoff games. Our youth on offense is no longer an excuse going into Week 14. Our freshmen aren’t freshmen anymore and our sophomores are playing like juniors. We’ve gained a lot of invaluable experience the last few weeks, and there is no bigger stage than playing Saraland in the state semifinals. It should be fun.”

Pike Road (11-2) lost its first two games of the season to Marist, Ga., and Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa but hasn’t lost since. The Patriots come into the semifinals with wins over Homewood (10-9), Spanish Fort (31-17) and Benjamin Russell (31-28).

Though they are young overall, they also have some championship experience. Auburn DL commit Malik Blocton and linebackers Lacedric Foster and Mac Ceman, among others, were all a part of the Pike Road Class 5A state championship team in 2021.

Shook said the strength of his team is on defense, especially up front and at the linebacker spots. Blocton has 109 tackles, including 30 tackles for a loss. That should lead to an intriguing matchup with Saraland’s high-scoring, quick-strike offensive attack.

“They are very good defensively,” Kelly said. “The create a lot of situations on defense whether with blitzes or stunts or matchups that cause problems. They play with a lot of speed and athleticism, run to the ball and are always in the right place. They aren’t going to beat themselves. If you give them an opportunity to scoop and score or to get an interception return, they are going to take advantage of it. We’ve got a great challenge.”

Saraland counters with the reigning Mr. Football in Williams who has accounted for 23 touchdowns this season. Lacey has thrown 36 TD passes and has plenty of weapons in addition to Williams, including C.D. Gill, Dillon Alfred, Myron Dunklin and Jordan Dees. Those aren’t the only guys Shook has to worry about, however.

“I think Santae McWilliams is very underrated,” he said. “He will be – if not the best – one of the best running backs we’ve seen this year. I don’t know what is in the water at Saraland with all these guys, but I need to bottle some of it up and bring it back home when we leave.”

Shook said, after 11 straight wins, he doesn’t plan a lot of changes for Friday night’s game.

“You are still talking about a game played by 14, 15, 16, 17-year-olds so you don’t want to change up a bunch of things at this point,” he said. “I told our team whoever handles adversity the best will have a good chance to win the game. It’s going to be a great environment, something their team will be accustomed to but ours will not be necessarily.

“Their speed is going to be elite. It will come down to blocking, tackling and taking care of the football. If we can win the turnover battle and the field position battle and try to limit their big plays – I didn’t say eliminate them – limit them, we have a chance to be successful.”

For Kelly, it’s a matter of his team continuing to focus on the goal at hand – returning to the 6A championship game for the fourth time in his 13 years as head coach at the school.

“Our kids have done a really good job of staying focused in the moment that they are in and not listening to a lot of outside stuff,” he said. “We talked a long time about how you handle adversity; how do you handle the moments that create tough times.

“We’ve also talked a lot about how do you handle success. I think you have to handle both the same way. You have to have a short memory. You have to understand that what has happened in the past doesn’t indicate any kind of entitlement of what is going to happen in the future. This group doesn’t get caught up in what is going on around them. They just love the game of football. They cherish every opportunity to play on Friday night.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Spartan Stadium in Saraland. The winner will play either Parker or Clay-Chalkville on Dec. 8 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.