Pleasant Grove ends Lions season in semifinals
BIRMINGHAM – The first time the Briarwood Christian School football team squared off with Pleasant Grove this fall, the Spartans ran away in the second half and won by two scores.
The loss saddled the Lions with their second straight loss to open the inaugural season of Matthew Forester’s tenure as head coach. But the Lions steadied the ship after that and didn’t lose for the next 11 weeks.
Pleasant Grove returned to Lions Pride Stadium on Friday night and met its match. The Spartans managed to prevail once again, but they needed a late touchdown to push past Briarwood 16-14 in the Class 5A semifinals.
After taking possession at their own 28-yard line with just under seven minutes to play, Pleasant Grove proceeded to march down the field by leaning on the running attack. Thirteen plays later, Zyquez Perryman found Chris Lewis in the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown and the 16-14 edge.
Pleasant Grove heads to the state championship game for the second time in school history, the first time since 2013.
“They did a few things differently (from the first matchup), but not really that much,” Forester said. “They’re a big RPO (run-pass option) team. We made some adjustments, it was just one of those games where they had a few players that made a few plays and a couple plays didn’t go our way.”
Briarwood (12-2) got off to a slow start offensively and Pleasant Grove (13-1) opened up a 10-0 lead in the second quarter. Perryman hit Xavier Hill on a slant route and Hill took it 51 yards for the game’s first score. Leonardo Rodriguez snuck a 22-yard field goal over the crossbar on the Spartans’ next drive.
But with 40 seconds remaining in the first half, the Lions got a big kickoff return by Parker Hutson to set them up with great field position. Offensive coordinator Bobby Kerley reached into his bag of tricks on the third play of the drive, as the Lions snapped the ball quick to take advantage of an unsuspecting Spartans defense.
The head start Blake McKenna got was all he needed, as the Briarwood receiver hauled in Chris Vizzina’s 24-yard pass to cut the deficit to 10-7 at halftime despite the Lions not achieving a first down in the opening two periods. Vizzina finished 8-of-15 passing on the night for 76 yards.
Briarwood ended up with only 155 total yards on the night, compared to Pleasant Grove’s 402, but the Lions were opportunistic.
“They’ve been willing to battle all year, they don’t get their dauber down,” Forester said of the offense. “There was no mad or disappointed at halftime, it was just keep grinding and you’ll be successful.”
That mindset paid off for the Lions to open the second half. Luke Prewett took the opening kickoff across midfield, and he found the end zone three plays later on a 26-yard run up the middle, putting Briarwood ahead 14-10. Prewett led the Lions with 53 rushing yards on six carries. Luke Reebals carried the ball 14 times for 46 yards.
That score held up until Pleasant Grove’s earth-moving and time-consuming drive to put the proverbial nail in the coffin. Briarwood got the ball back with just under two minutes to play and moved across midfield, but couldn’t come up with a fourth-down conversion.
Forester, the longtime defensive coordinator who assumed the head coach’s role after Fred Yancey’s retirement last fall, said he was proud of how the seniors “fought and battled” throughout the season and in the final game.
“I am proud of the foundation the seniors were willing to leave, how they led was just incredible. They stuck with us and believed in what we were doing. I couldn’t ask for a better group of seniors, and the juniors were right there with them. They’ll be doing the same thing next year,” he said.
Despite Pleasant Grove’s penchant for explosive plays, Briarwood’s defense made plenty of its own. Cal Reebals notched a sack on the second play of the game, Miller Stubblefield came up with a sack on a fourth down, Tyler Waugh and Christian Ferguson had sacks in the second quarter, and Andrew Jones forced and recovered a critical fumble in the fourth quarter.
The Lions also stopped Pleasant Grove at the 1-yard line early in the second quarter.
"The two fourth down stops, holding them to a field goal on one of those, those were huge plays in the first half,” Forester said. “We knew they had explosive guys but all we wanted to do was tackle them and get another chance to play another down. They do a great job of fighting even with their backs against the wall.”
Perryman finished the night 13-of-19 passing for 182 yards and two touchdowns. Lewis caught seven passes for 83 yards and Hill had 79 yards on three grabs. Tyler Christopher was the workhorse on the ground, chewing up 149 yards on 21 carries.
Pleasant Grove will face Central-Clay County next Thursday in the 5A championship game, set to be played at 7 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn.
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