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In a battle of undefeated teams, Spain Park used a dominant defensive effort to stifle the Chelsea Hornets and take sole possession of first place in Class 6A, Region 3. (For the Reporter/Cari Dean)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – The Spain Park Jaguars and Chelsea Hornets entered the night on a level playing field at 6-0. However, by the end of the evening, Spain Park showed there are levels to the game.

The Jags cruised to a 31-3 victory on Thursday, Oct. 10 at Jaguar Stadium behind a dominant defensive performance that cleared the way for the offense to grind its way to first place in Class 6A, Region 3.

For coach Tim Vakakes’ team though, working hard and grinding is in their DNA.

“Tonight wasn’t always pretty, but our kids, it means a lot to them, and when it means a lot to them, they’re willing to kind of dig down deep when it gets tough,” Vakakes said. “But again, our kids are used to doing hard things and nobody panicked, nobody flinches.”

Spain Park made an impact right out of the gate with CJ Cowley’s 60-yard kickoff return to the Hornets 37 following a Chelsea offside.

Using the short field to his advantage, Brock Bradley and the offense got down the field and converted a third down for the first score of the night.

Bradley found CJ Cowley along the left sideline, and the running back ran it in for the 10-yard touchdown and the 7-0 lead with 8:37 left in the first.

While the Jags were relatively quick to strike, the Hornets were content to grind their way down the field during a nearly eight-minute drive.

Miller Bauman came up with a pair of third down throws to keep the drive alive, first to CJ Durbin and then to Aiden Hughes.

The senior signal caller then orchestrated a bit of trickery on a fourth down when he walked over to the sideline, opening up the direct snap to Chase Stracener to convert the first down.

However, the late down heroics ended there as the Jags stopped Hughes at the 3, leading to a 20-yard Luke Miller field goal to cut into the Spain Park lead, which was 7-3 with 43 seconds left in the first.

Cowley then electrified the crowd with another big kickoff return, this one for 35 yards. However, that would be the last big gain for a while as both defenses settled in and exchanged punts for the next four drives.

Penalties got the better of Chelsea in its two drives during that stretch as both times the offense incurred false start penalties on fourth-and-short.

The Jags took over with 6:41 left in the half and made their way down the field from their own 25.

Bradley called his own number on third-and-9 to get the offense to the 9-yard line. A false start then backed them up, but Dakarai Shanks powered his way into the end zone anyway from 14 yards out, extending the lead to 14-3 with 3:06 left in the half.

Spain Park’s defense got a quick stop after that, downing Durbin short of the line to gain on third down.

That set up the Jags for a two-minute drill that they couldn’t capitalize off after multiple missed deep shots, the last of which was a Hail Mary picked off by Sam Parrish and returned to end the half.

After the game, Vakakes admitted that he made some mistakes trying to counter Chelsea’s early possession-based attack. He did credit his coaches and players for pushing through that and recovering for a big defensive night after that.

“I think our kids played hard,” Vakakes said. “They had the ball the whole first quarter, and they did a really good job of scheming it up, and our kids are kind of not really playing fast. But our defensive coaches, nobody panics. We just make a couple of adjustments, get the kids to play hard and they got off the field a bunch in the second half.”

Chelsea started out the second half with another big third down play, this time a 17-yard Stracener run. However, a jet sweep later in the drive turned disastrous after EJ Kerley recovered a fumble.

Spain Park caught a break on the ensuing drive with a pre-snap penalty on fourth-and-3 to move the chains.

Bradley tried the end zone a couple of times before leaving it to Josh Tulloss to convert the 23-yard field goal, extending the lead to 17-3 with 5:56 left in the third.

After the Jags defense stepped up with a pair of pass breakups to force another three-and-out, Corey Barber stepped up with a big offensive drive.

The wideout made a tight sideline catch at the Hornets 29 to extend the drive, and a few plays later, he took a sweep from Bradley in five yards for the score, making the lead 24-3 with 35 seconds left in the third.

Then, it was much of the same story for Chelsea: another fourth-down conversion followed later by a turnover on downs as the Hornets couldn’t get past the Spain Park 19.

The Jags grinded their way down the field and milked clock before tacking on another touchdown to end the night.

Bradley and Barber connected for another jet sweep score with just under a minute left to put the finishing touches on the 31-3 win.

The run game led the way as Shanks finished with 121 yards and a touchdown off 21 carries and Cowley rushed 15 times for 74 yards.

Bradley finished the night 10-for-19 for 82 yards and two touchdowns off jet sweeps. Barber was his top receiver with five catches for 63 yards and both touchdowns.

Vakakes tipped his cap to Chelsea for how hard and the team played. He credited his players for leaning on the hard work they have put in and the identity that they have built for pushing through and getting the win, and Vakakes said sticking to that identity will be key down the stretch.

“We just got to keep doing what we do,” Vakakes said. “We’re not going to come up with anything cute, we’re not fancy, we don’t find different things we can do, we just do the same things over and over and try to get better at it.”

Spain Park will look to keep its winning ways rolling in its final home game of the regular season against the Calera Eagles on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at Jaguar Stadium. A win would clinch the region championship and a No. 1 seed in the Class 6A playoffs.

As for Chelsea, it will look to bounce back from its first loss of the season against the Helena Huskies on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at Chelsea High School.

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