TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- The McGill-Toolen Yellow Jackets get their first ever AHSAA 7A State Championship with a 14-12 win over Spain Park Wednesday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Yellow Jackets running back Terrell Kennedy rushed for 203 yards on 22 carries and scored two touchdowns was named game MVP.
Kennedy scored his two touchdowns in the first half along with a stingy McGill-Toolen defense controlled the Spain Park offense for much of the game. "Really proud of this football team," said Yellow Jackets Head coach Caleb Ross. "I lot of people doubted us that we could win a state championship coming off a 4-6 record, but we didn't doubt ourselves. Our goal was to win a state championship and we did it. Even in some tough moments tonight, they hung together and I'm so proud of them hanging together on getting the win."
McGill-Toolen (13-1) scored first in the game on a Kennedy 4-yard touchdown run. Charles Green kicked the extra point to give the Yellow Jackets a 7-0 lead with 8:21 left in the first quarter. With :47 seconds left in the first quarter, Crosby Gray kicked a 37-yard field goal to cut the McGill-Toolen lead to 7-3.
A big turning point in the game happened late in the second quarter. With less than three minutes left in the half, Spain Park decided to go for a fourth-and-5 play at the McGill-Toolen 36-yard line, but the play was spoiled when DeAnthony Washington sacked Jags QB Joey Beatty for a 10-yard loss. After the turnover on downs for the Jaguars offense, on the Yellow Jackets first play, Kennedy took a handoff off left tackle and raced 54-yards for a McGill-Toolen touchdown and a big 14-3 lead at the half. We thought we could run outside zone and that was kind of the play of choice in the first half," Ross added. "They play Terrell scored on was just an inside zone. He made a great run. He's been our guy the last six or seven weeks. He has great vision. He sees the hole and he accelerates through it."
In the second half, Spain Park scored on a Joey Beatty 1-yard TD run on a QB sneak. The two point conversion failed and the Jaguars cut the lead to 14-9 with 5:54 left in the game. On the first Yellow Jackets possession, the Jags defense caused a turnover deep into McGill-Toolen territory and the game was turning hopes for the Jag Nation. With 4:25 left in the game, Markell Clark recovered the fumble for Spain Park and to setup the Jags offense. With 4:25 left in the game, Spain Park had to settle for a Cray 29-yard field goal and lost a big chance to turn the game around.
McGill-Toolen ran out the clock after that driving down the field on the Spain Park defense and get the McGill-Toolen win. McGill-Toolen had 385 total yards verse only 178 yards for Spain Park. "The perimeter runs really hurt us," said Jaguars linebacker Perry Young. "We weren't fitting it properly. We did a way better job in the second half."
