By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

Last year’s Game of the Year took place in the last region game of the season and saw the Warriors beat Hoover, 32-25, for the first time in school history, which led to a region championship and a perfect regular season of 10-0. This year it will take place in the first week of region play, with the winner likely taking home the region crown again this season.

While the Bucs lost that matchup in the regular season last year, they came back and beat Thompson 31-12 in the semifinals of the playoffs to ruin the Warriors’ perfect season, before going on to win the state championship.

While that historic win in the first game was one to remember, that loss in the semifinals left a sour taste in this team’s mouth as they couldn’t pull off the ultimate goal of a title.

Now, going into this week, Hoover will play host to Thompson for the second year in a row, and this year, the Bucs will play with the motivation of not dropping a game to the Warriors on their home turf for the second year in a row.

They will also go in as a technical underdog after Thompson jumped Hoover in the most recent football rankings, giving the Warriors the No. 1 spot in the standings for the first time in school history, but possibly at the worst time.

The Bucs won’t take kindly to that, but the good thing is the Warriors know that and will be plenty motivated themselves.

Hoover will, however, be coming into the game off a rather lopsided loss. That lopsided loss came against the No. 5 team in the country though after falling by a final score of 42-14 to St. Johns out of Washington D.C.

The Bucs are still loaded on offense with Robby Ashford at quarterback, Larry McCammon at running back and George Pickens at receiver, giving them one of the best offenses in the state, but their momentum and confidence won’t be as high as it was after its opening win of 52-14 against Pinson Valley.

Thompson on the other hand will be coming in off two dominant wins by a combined score of 85-7 against James Clemens (38-7) and Foley (47-0).

Coming into the season, I thought the Warriors would have the best offense in the state this year thanks to an offensive line that has two Division I level players, a running back in Shad Byrd that has several DI offers and a quarterback in Taulia Tagovailoa that is committed to the University of Alabama and one of the best players in the country.

What has been most impressive to me, however, is the ability of the receivers and the defense.

With the loss of close to 3,000 yards at the receiving position and close to 400 tackles defensively, those were the key positions where players needed to step up, and through two games they have done so.

Michael Pettway has been a huge plus at the receiver position with two 100-plus yard games in a row, while the defense has given up just seven points, right before the half against James Clemens.

If the defense keeps playing that well, with the offensive talent this team has, they will be a tough team to stop, but this week, they’ll get a much better and more physical team than both James Clemens and Foley combined.

So what’s the key?

Good defense and balance on offense. Pretty simple, right?

Hoover’s defense was burned by Byrd on the ground last year in the regular season, as he racked up 131 yards and three touchdowns in that win.

With Tagovailoa already throwing for nine touchdowns through basically four quarters of play so far, the Hoover defense will once again be keyed in on stopping the passing game, and while the Bucs will try to also focus on Byrd, doing both at the same time is going to be the biggest problem for Hoover.

For Thompson’s defense it’s going to be a similar situation. The Warriors are going to have to be so big and physical to handle Pickens in the secondary, as well as a good quarterback-running back duo in Ashford and McCammon.

It’s a tall task for the team to handle, but while McCammon can run over you or by you, the biggest key is limiting the deep ball. Thompson did a great job of that in the regular-season win last year, as Hoover almost looked scared to throw down field, and it’s something that will be the biggest key for the defense again this year.

Coming into this past week, I was undoubtedly ready to pick Hoover in this game. It wasn’t even a question to me that the Bucs weren’t going drop this game on their home field for the second year in a row, but seeing Thompson play the way they have to start this season and Hoover struggle in Week 2 has made it such a difficult decision.

I still think Hoover is going to sneak out a close game, that will see a lot of offense, but also think it can go either way.

Thompson 31, Hoover 35