Mountain Brook Spartans (6-1)   vs. Homewood Patriots (5-2)
 

AHSAA TV Network Game of the Week

Homewood and Mountain Brook Clash in Key Class 6A, Region 5 Battle Thursday

       MONTGOMERY – The Class 6A, Region 6 football championship is within the grasp of Mountain Brook High School and Homewood High School when the two teams meet Thursday night at Waldrop Stadium in the AHSAA TV Network Game of the Week tonight at 7 p.m. being produced by Vince Earley and the production crew at WOTM TV.
      The Game of the Week broadcast team consisting of former Birmingham radio personality veteran TV 24 sports director Gerhard Mathangani, handling the play-by-play, and color by WEAC TV veteran Mickey Shadrix. The battle will be televised live over the AHSAA TV Network and livestreamed over the NFHS Network. WOTM TV has put together a strong network of cable affiliates across Alabama. It will be live on WOTM TV as well as WABM TV 68 in Birmingham.
     Mountain Brook (6-1) sits atop Region 6 with a 4-0 record. Briarwood Christian (7-1) is 4-1 with its only region loss to the Spartans. Homewood (5-2), which has found some dramatic ways to win football games this season, is 3-1 with its only region loss a 10-8 setback last week to Shades Valley. The Patriots of Coach Ben Berguson hold their fate in their own hands, however, with Mountain Brook on Thursday at home and a Briarwood Christian on the road next week. A sweep of the two 6A powerhouse programs would give the region title to the Pats.
    Mountain Brook can clinch the region title with a win over Homewood Thursday. A loss, however, would make the final region game in two weeks with Chelsea very important.
    Briarwood’s bout with Homewood is its only region game remaining. A win over the Patriots will insure either first or second place in the final region standings.
   Homewood and Mountain Brook are meeting for the 35th time in both programs’ football history. The Spartans of Coach Chris Yeager currently own a 19-15 edge in the series.      Yeager, who has a 154-77 overall head-coaching record, is Mountain Brook’s all-time wins leader with  a 127-57 slate since becoming head coach 15 years ago in 2006. Two of Yeager’s teams have reached the Class 6A state semifinals, his 2010 team which finished 11-3 and his 2020 team which compiled a 12-2 record.
    “I think we’re getting better every week and that’s the key,” said Yeager. “As the game wears on and the journey continues, sometimes you get bored with doing the same things over and over, but champions don’t.”

    Berguson, who has been the head coach for the Patriots since 2014, has a 59-31 record at Homewood – which ranks third all-time behind Bob Newton (124-24) and Gerald Gann (108-76-2). The Patriots have won five state titles (1974, 1995, 2009, 2002, 2004 and 2005), the last four under Newton’s tutelage.
     “We’re playing really well right now,” said Berguson. “We’ve had a really tough schedule and it’s really prepared us for now. We’ve won games in every way you can win them this year, so we’re ready for this part of the season.”
     He credits the work of his offensive line for s big part of Homewood’s success this season.
   “Our offensive line is really jelling right now and we are playing well at the right time.”

     A total of 14 games are set for Thursday night with 12 being live-streamed over the subscriber-based NFHS Network. The NFHS Network has a busy week with AHSAA member schools in the NFHS School Broadcast Program set to live-stream more than 130 varsity football games Thursday and Friday night. To subscribe, go to the following link:
https://playonsubs.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204451729-How-do-I-subscribe-to-the-NFHS-Network-

   The AHSAA Radio Network’s Scoreboard Show will also air across the state Friday night. Go to www.ahsaaradionetwork.com for network information.
    To access the AHSAA Game of the Week over the NFHS Network, go to the following link
https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/ahsaa/gam7e4e791e0d

    To access the AHSAA Game of the Week over WOTM TV and its network of cable affiliates, go to AHSAA TV Network at the following link:
https://www.ahsaa.com/media and click on the AHSAA TV Network link.
    A complete list of all varsity football games set for tonight and Friday can be found at:
https://www.ahsaa.com/Portals/0/Sports/Football/Schedules/2021/2021%20Week%208.pdf?ver=sIBaJ5QPMUSi61NMFuMzBQ%3d%3d&timestamp=1624892303882
To access this week’s AHSAA Region Football Standings, go to the following link:
https://www.ahsaa.com/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=p6Z0b1sgqCo%3d&portalid=0&timestamp=1633979224683