AISA CLASS AA: Chambers dominates Banks for title
Chambers Academy celebrates the Class AA state championship at Cramton Bowl. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Chambers Academy and Banks Academy were locked in a tight battle through the first half of their championship battle. Entering the second half, the Rebels were looking for the knockout blow.
“Our linebacker, Luke Tarver, really gets into it and he was screaming, ‘Ryan, we need a big play, we need a big play,’” said Chambers senior lineman Ryan Smith said. “I saw the tackle step back and I read it. It didn’t look like a pass or a run. I thought, instantly, screen. I stepped right over, the quarterback threw the ball right to me and I caught it. Eli Whorton made a great block downfield. I got an open path and went on to the house.”
Smith’s unlikely 39-yard interception return for a touchdown was the culmination of a third-quarter explosion that saw Chambers win its third state championship with a 41-14 rout of the Jets in the Alabama Independent School Association’s Class AA state finals at Cramton Bowl on Thursday.
Chambers (12-1) led 12-7 at the half but it was the Rebels’ third-quarter defense that turned up the pressure on the Jets, converting three interceptions into touchdowns to turn a closely contested game into a rout.
“We didn’t panic,” Chambers Academy coach Jason Allen said. “We made some adjustments at halftime. Our kids, credit to them, believe everything we say and those adjustments were simple, they worked really well and I thought our kids played really hard in the second half.”
Banks (11-2), only in its fourth year as a program, started the year 3-0 before losing to Chambers 67-18 on Sept. 15. The Jets rebounded to win eight consecutive games before falling to the Rebels again.
“It’s been a great journey,” Banks coach Jermaine Watson said. “This is my second year here and nobody expected us to be here. So to get here is a testament of them believing and buying in.”
Banks had the ball just 14 plays in the third quarter, turning the ball over three times and falling behind 34-7.
“We had a couple of kids that got banged up,” Watson said, “and they went in at halftime and made a good adjustment. They saw some things that we were doing, they adjusted to it. Losing a couple of D-linemen played a part in what we were doing schematically against them.
“The front we were playing them in, I kind of knew we could stop the ‘buck.’ I knew once we stopped the ‘buck,’ they would run counter. They blocked some things down and started running counter on us.”
Tarver led Chambers with 150 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 16 carries. Jacob Norgard picked up many of his 66 yards, as well as his 10-yard touchdown run, on counter plays in the second half. Whorton added 55 yards and a touchdown on four carries.
“They’ve got a very disciplined football team,” Watson said. “When you play against this football team, you have to play perfect. And in the third quarter, we didn’t play perfect.
“We knew we were going to have to score to try and get them out of what they do. When you don’t do that, the scoreboard is the evidence of what happens.”