James Clemens rolls to seventh straight football win
MADISON – James Clemens’ run through its schedule continued Friday night against Huntsville at Madison City Stadium.
But while the Jets enjoyed a seventh straight win, this one a convincing 41-7 decision over the Panthers in a Class 6A, Region 4 clash, they still seek more.
James Clemens, which hasn’t lost since falling on the road in Birmingham to Parker in its second game, gets a shot at extending their streak with another game in the Magic City area Thursday night when they travel to Hoover’s Spain Park.
After that comes a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed as Class 6A, Region 4 champion. The Jets (8-1 overall, 7-0 region) will play the Hewitt-Trussville/Gadsden City winner at home Nov. 13 in Round 2.
Huntsville (4-5, 3-4) travels to Muscle Shoals this week.
“We’re just trying to finish the regular season the right way,’’ James Clemens head coach Juan Johnson said. “One thing which we went into the offseason with was trying to build up positives around finishing. We want to finish the second half of the season the right way.’’
Senior quarterback Matthew Evers completed 10-of-20 passes for 112 yards with two touchdowns to Aaron Gonzalez and William Kimberly.
Jets senior MJ Gideon scored his 23rd TD of the season in limited action. Sophomore Chance Vogt took on the rushing load, carrying 28 times for 142 yards.
Defensively, Eric Young and Kaleb Pryor both had seven tackles, Pryor and Trevor Caudle had interceptions and Pryor recovered a fumble. Myles Yarbrough had two of the Jets’ 10 tackles for loss.
James Clemens led at the quarter breaks 17-0, 24-0 and 31-7.
“They have a tremendous defensive front there at Huntsville, so tremendously proud of my guys for being resilient and adjusting to their game plan,’’ Johnson said. “We were able to do some things really well, threw the ball really well there in the first half. A lot of different receivers were able to catch the ball.’’
James Barclay returned for a TD for the Panthers’ lone score.
“Defensively, we were able to pitch basically a shutout other than the interception return for a touchdown,” Johnson said. “So, I was really proud of how our defense played the game. Coach (Anthony) Gideon and the group on our defensive side did a tremendous job of getting our kids ready to play.
“We want to continue to find our own consistency week in and week out. So again, we just want to finish the regular season the right way. Spain Park has a tremendous football team. Parker, we played a tough game down there against them that did not go our way. So we’re looking at it as a way to play a really good football team going to the playoffs and kind of continue to define our consistency so we can play well in the playoffs.’’
