Golden Gophers clober Panthers

BROOKWOOD— Hueytown’s Roydell Williams sprinted past the Brookwood defense for a 33-yard touchdown run on the fourth play of the game, putting the Golden Gophers up seven. Brookwood never recovered, losing 57-0.

“We made some mistakes, but that’s a really, really good football team we played,” Brookwood coach Tracy Dunn said. “Lots of time when you play someone of that quality, they help make you look bad.”

On back-to-back possessions to start the game, the Panthers struggled to snap the ball on punts. Both snaps sailed over the punter’s head into the end zone. The first one was recovered by Jordan Ivory for a touchdown, while the other was kicked out the back of the end zone for a safety.

The Panthers trailed 37-0 at the end of the first quarter.

“We were able to give it to our running back, and he’s a pretty good football player,” Hueytown coach Scott Mansell said. “He made some pretty big plays for us early and just got us started.”

The first half was completely one sided. The Panthers trailed 51-0 going into halftime, and the Golden Gophers outgained them 362-66. The largest difference came on rushing as the Panthers ran for just one yard, while allowing the Golden Gophers to run for 320.

Dunn’s message to his team at half was just “keep going.”

“We made a few adjustments here and there,” Dunn said. “We tried to tackle their guys up high, which we didn’t have success at.”

The Golden Gophers finished with 383 rushing yards, while the Panthers had just 46 yards on 32 attempts.

Williams finished with 225 rushing yards and five total touchdowns, four of which came on the ground.

Brookwood (1-4, 0-3) travels to Oak Grove next Friday.