Waugh's 4 touchdowns lead Lions past Parker

BIRMINGHAM -- In baseball, there’s a clean-up hitter — fourth man in the batting order, who’s supposed to bring home all the runners on base.

Briarwood Christian School’s football team has a clean-up man of its own. When his teammates get the ball down close to the opponent’s goal line, he takes over with a direct snap and scores the touchdown from a yard or two away.

And Tyler Waugh did that job perfectly on Thursday night, scoring four rushing touchdowns on his only carries of the game — three runs of a yard or shorter, and one 2-yard sprint — as the Lions scored a crucial 38-28 Class 5A, Region 4 victory at Parker.

Normally a linebacker, Waugh has become coach Matthew Forester’s go-to man when Briarwood is within feet of paydirt.

“It was fun to see him do a great job. This is the fifth week where’s been our short-yardage goal line [man]. … He also punted that coffin-corner kick down there as well,” Forester said.

That was a pooch kick just behind the line of scrimmage with about five minutes left in the game and the Lions clinging to a 3-point lead. After a three-and-out near midfield, Waugh put the punt inside the Thundering Herd 10-yard line to pin them deep.

The Lions held firm after the Waugh pooch punt. The ensuing Herd punt was taken by Briarwood on the hosts’ side of the 50, and Waugh scored the clinching touchdown six plays later.

“Oh, and he’s also a pretty doggone good middle linebacker, too,” Forester quipped.

Waugh was quick to give credit to a sturdy offensive line that cleared the way.

“And our offense got us down there, like Luke [Prewett and Luke Reebals]. I felt kinda bad just going down there and scoring the touchdowns,” he joked.

Briarwood got out to an early lead after it took advantage of a shanked punt deep in Parker territory. Reebals took two plays to get from the 15-yard line to the 1, and Waugh did the rest. 

The Lions defense prepared all week to deal with Herd quarterback Kambree Johnson, who’s been posting eye-popping stats this season. Johnson had a knack for finding plenty of open receivers, and when he couldn’t, he often found a seam to run for significant yardage. Following Briarwood’s opening score, he led his Bison offense on a 14-play drive that ended in his 1-yard touchdown run.

In all, Johnson — a senior who’s on the recruiting radars of UAB and Samford, among other college teams — scored three rushing touchdowns and threw a pass to Joshua Brown for another. In his last two games, Johnson has been responsible for 10 touchdowns. He completed 26 passes in 34 attempts for 226 yards; wide receiver RaQuez Jackson caught 11 receptions for 137 yards.

Briarwood responded to Johnson’s aerial attack with a potent ground game, led by Prewett. The senior running back carried the ball 23 times for 134 yards, scoring once and setting up two Waugh touchdowns.

Freshman quarterback Chris Vizzina connected on seven passes in 10 tries. Prewett had three receptions for 39 yards, and Blake McKenna caught a pair for 47 yards.

Noah Nall also kicked a 26-yard field goal.

The win all but guarantees another trip to the playoffs for Briarwood (6-1 overall, 4-1 region), which notched its fifth straight win. But their toughest test of the season so far comes next week as the Lions host Ramsay.

“We’ve been looking forward to it. They’re three years removed from a state championship, and we knew that when they came back down to 5A, they were going to be the premier program,” Forester said. “We’re excited about this game, because our kids want to play in big-time games.”