By Johnny Sanders Jr.
CLAY — After a 3-0 start to the 2019 season, Clay-Chalkville welcomed crosstown rival Pinson Valley to Jerry Hood Field for a 6A Region 6 showdown to open region play. Pinson Valley entered the contest 2-1 (1-0 in the region), riding a five-game winning streak in the series.
The game began with Pinson receiving the opening kickoff and gaining first down yardage on its first two plays of the game; however, that drive would stall out and Pinson Valley would have to punt the ball. The defensive battle continued and the first quarter ended in a deadlocked 0-0 tie.
The second quarter saw a good bit of the same to begin but the Pinson Valley offense began to find success against its counterparts. It drove the ball down inside the Clay 10-yard line. With the ball at the 12-yard line, the Cougar defense had held Pinson to a third down try, but they jumped offsides to give the Indians a first and goal at the 7. Determined to keep Pinson out of the end zone, the Cougar defense held them to only 2 yards on the next three plays and forced a Chris Ruiz-Soto field goal with 7:39 left in the half, to make the game 3-0 Indians.
On the next offensive drive, DJ Ward dropped back and threw an interception to Pinson defensive back Tomas Wesley, who took the ball 37 yards for an Indian touchdown. The Ruiz PAT made the score 10-0 with 6:46 remaining. Both defenses held for the rest of the half and they went into the locker room with Pinson leading 10-0.
The Cougars received the ball to open the third quarter and on a third down play, DJ Ward threw his second interception of the night, this time to Jamari Dailey. Dailey caught the ball at the 50-yard line and returned it to the Clay-Chalkville 29.
The Cougar defense bent but would not break until a fourth and goal from the 3 when Pinson Valley quarterback Barry White found Ga’quincy “Koolaide” McKinstry just inside of the goal line for an Indian touchdown. The Ruiz PAT extended the lead to 17-0, Pinson Valley. After Clay’s next offensive attempt was thwarted by the stingy Pinson Valley defense, White found Jaquel Fells for a 24-yard touchdown that saw Fells put some Cadillac-like moves on the Cougar defenders. After getting the ball back, the Pinson Valley quarterback hit his third different receiver for a touchdown, this time getting the ball to Keyonteze Johnson for the score with only 41 seconds left in the third quarter, pushing the shutout to 31-0.
The home team caught some traction at the beginning of the fourth quarter due to some big runs by quarterback Khalib Johnson who capped the drive off with a 4-yard touchdown run straight up the middle of the Indian’s defense. Jaren Van Winkle added a PAT to cut the lead to 31-7. That is where the scoring would end for both teams as Pinson would drive the ball down inside the Clay 10-yard line and line up in the victory formation for the final plays of the game.
“This was a great win. Anytime you can beat Clay, it’s a great win,” Pinson Valley head coach Patrick Nix said. When asked about quarterback Barry White’s performance, he said, “I wouldn’t say anyone carried the team. It’s a total team effort. That’s what’s so great about this team.”
