Jimmy Mitchell
Briarwood's J.R. Tran-Reno (9) during an AHSAA Class 5A quarterfinal game between Etowah and Briarwood on Friday, Nov. 24, 2017, at Lions Pride Stadium in Birmingham.
After his team’s 31-0 blowout of Etowah in the Class 5A state quarterfinals, Briarwood Christian School head football coach Fred Yancey acknowledged a verifiable fact. The Lions, now 13-0 on the season, make a darn good football team.
“If you’re fundamentally sound and have got guys that are pretty talented, all that adds up to being hard to beat,” Yancey said. “Right now we’re hard to beat.”
Briarwood has been all fall.
It blitzed through its regular season schedule unscathed and has outscored its three playoff opponents — Crossville, Lee-Huntsville and Etowah — 128-14. History offers little evidence to suggest that Friday’s state semifinal contest against St. Clair County (10-3) will yield an outcome any less lopsided.
Briarwood bedeviled the Saints in the teams’ Oct. 6 meeting, pulling away for a convincing 31-6 victory. Lions running back JR Tran-Reno had a field day in the win. He accounted for nearly 175 yards of total offense and scored four touchdowns. Meanwhile, Briarwood’s defense gridlocked the Saints, who fumbled twice and turned the ball over on downs repeatedly.
Briarwood pieced together a similarly overwhelming performance last Friday against Etowah. The Lions built a 17-0 halftime lead that they extended during the final two quarters. Etowah, which entered the game with one loss, was held to 181 yards of offense. The Blue Devils had been held under 14 points just once previously.
“We came out and executed,” Briarwood linebacker Gabe Russell said afterward.
The victory ensured Briarwood its second consecutive trip to the state semifinals, where it fell last year to Wenonah, 14-8. The Lions have not advanced to the state championship game since 2010.
St. Clair County, on the other hand, has had to exercise more patience. Up until this year, the Saints had not experienced a winning season 2010, and their last appearance in the state semifinal came in 1993. They won it all that year by knocking off Hazlewood in the 2A title game.
St. Clair County was not expected to be in a position this fall to break the streak. It had gone 3-7 the past three seasons before the arrival of first-year coach Matt Glover, the former head man at Pinson Valley.
The Saints clinched the third playoff seed from Region 5, which Briarwood won, and have proceeded to click off three straight victories. They escaped a first-round trip to Guntersville with a 28-21 triumph, routed second-round opponent Mae Jemison, 48-21, and eked out a 27-26 overtime win last Friday at Wenonah. St. Clair County had lost to Wenonah one month prior, 26-7.
The most noteworthy player on the Saints roster is Jalen Cunningham, a senior defensive tackle who has garnered college recruiting interest from Alabama, Mississippi State and Ole Miss, among others. He leads a defensive unit that will attempt to slow down Briarwood’s high-powered offense.
It will be a tall task. As Yancey said, the Lions are hard to beat.
Friday’s kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Lions Pride Stadium. The winner will meet either St. Paul’s or Demopolis on Thursday, Dec. 7, in the state final at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.
- Gary Lloyd contributed to this report.
