SUPER 7 RECAP: Maplesville turns tables on Wadley to win 1A title; Moody wins 5A, Mars Hill 3A champs
Maplesville ‘s Eli Hubbert runs for a first down as teammate Ty Bailey delivers a block in the Red Devils’ Class 1A championship win over Wadley on Thursday. (Photo courtesy AHSAA/David Holstford)
CONTRIBUTED
BIRMIMGHAM - Maplesville High School head football coach Brad Abbott said he and his coaching staff predicted the Class of 2026 could lead the Red Devils to a state championship when they arrived as seventh graders.
That prediction came true Thursday as the Red Devils (15-0) earned a 42-22 victory over defending state champion Wadley (13-1) in the AHSAA Class 1A championship game on Day 2 of the 30th Super 7 Championships at Protective Stadium.
The victory avenged the 37-7 loss to Wadley in the 2024 championship game and snapped the Bulldogs’ winning streak at 26 games.
Maplesville captured its first state title since 2016 and first since when three in a row from 2014-16.
“To be the head coach to bring another state championship to Maplesville, it means the world to me,” said Abbott, a Maplesville graduate. “We were always looking at Wadley’s scores on Friday night and hoping they’d make it here again, and we’d avenge last year’s loss.
Maplesville sophomore Nehemiah McCary ran 14 times for 182 yards, scoring on runs of 21 and 51 yards in the second half, and quarterback Pearce Yeargan ran for a touchdown, caught a TD pass and threw a TD pass. Eli Hubbert threw the TD pass to Yeargan, scored on a 7-yard run and led the Red Devils with seven tackles.
The victory was especially sweet for Maplesville’s seniors after losing in last year’s championship game to the Bulldogs.
“We had one mission,” said Hubbert, a senior who was named championship game MVP.
Wadley senior and Auburn signee Jaquez Wilkes ran eight times for 43 yards and a 1-yard TD and added 4½ tackles, but he suffered an ankle injury in the first half and did not play after halftime. Wilkes earned MVP honors at the 2024 state finals.
Maplesville took advantage of Wilkes’ absence by turning a 21-14 halftime lead into a 42-22 victory. McCary ran for 159 yards in the second half as the Red Devils reeled off three straight touchdown drives to essentially put the came out of reach.
Cortavion Lynch added 87 yards and a 2-yard TD on 14 carries for Wadley, and Jaylon Marable scored on an 18-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Class 5A Championship: Moody 25, Vigor 0
BIRMINGHAM – Moody failed to complete a pass in the first half of Thursday’s Class 5A championship game against Vigor and finished with two completions for 5 yards. It didn’t matter.
The Blue Devils relied on a clock-sapping ground game, as running backs Le’Kamren Meadows and Kevin James combined for 285 yards rushing, to earn 25-0 victory to cap Day 2 of the 30th annual Super 7 Championships at Protective Stadium. Moody held the ball for 30:44 in a game played in a driving rain.
“We wanted to get big and run the ball,” Moody coach Jake Ganus said. “Our o-line is real mean and nasty. They’ve been praying for a game like this – cold, rainy, and having to run the ball.”
Meadows finished with 25 carries for 186 yards and all three Moody touchdowns. He was selected the Class 5A Championship Game MVP. James added 97 yards on 22 carries. Both of Moody’s completed passes were on jet sweeps in which quarterback Jake Lowery tossed the ball forward less than a foot.
“I have to thank the O-linemen,” James said.
Moody (13-2) captured the program’s first state football championship, ended the season on a nine-game winning streak.
“We played in the same conditions that they played in and they executed,” Vigor coach Renardo Jackson said. “Hats off to Moody for a job well done.”
Moody opened the game with a 12-play, 60-yard drive capped by Meadows’ 2-yard run that used 6:14 of the first-quarter clock. The Blue Devils (13-2) added a 15-play, 92-yard drive in the second quarter to eat up 7:35, and Meadows scored on a 1-yard run and 2-point conversion run to make it 15-0 midway through the second quarter.
Moody’s Ryan McPherson delivered the play of the game on the final play of the first half when he made a 50-yard field goal on a free kick after the Blue Devils fair-caught a Vigor punt. The kick made it 18-0 at halftime and was the first free kick field goal in Super 7 Championship history.
CLASS 3A Championship: Mars Hill Bible 38, Bayside Academy 21
BIRMINGHAM – Mars Hill Bible School entered the fourth quarter of Thursday’s Class 3A championship game against Bayside Academy at Protective Stadium in an unfamiliar position – locked in a tight game.
The Panthers (15-0) entered the game having scored at least 41 points in its 14 wins and won them all by at least 24 points. When Bayside Academy’s Davis Barnett threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Walker Collins in the final minute of the third quarter, it cut Mars Hill’s lead to 17-14 and put the Panthers in a situation they hadn’t faced this season.
“That’s why you put in all that work (in the offseason),” Mars Hill coach Darrell Higgins said. “When it happened, we were ready for it.”
Mars Hill responded with three fourth-quarter touchdown drives and pulled away for a 38-21 victory. The win pushed the Panthers’ current winning streak to a 20 straight and secured a second straight Class 3A championship.
Higgins has now led Mars Hill to four state titles, winning Class 1A in 2018, Class 2A in 2020 and Class 3A in 2024 and 2025. The Panthers won all four title games by double digits. The loss ended a 13-game winning streak for Bayside (13-2).
Mars Hill rolled up 398 yards rushing against Bayside, coached by Barrett Trotter. Penn ran 25 times for 205 yards and three touchdowns. To earn Class 3A state championship game MVP. Penn’s 89-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter essentially ended Bayside’s comeback bid, and he added TD runs of 2 and 3 yards.
Hudson Higgins – the head coach’s son – added 22 carries for 195 yards and touchdown runs of 34 yards in the first half and 4 yards in the game’s final minute.
“They’ve got great players and an efficient offense,” Trotter said. “They run the wing-T as good as anybody I’ve seen.”
Mars Hill jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first half, using an 11-play, 99-yard drive to score the game’s first TD on Penn’s 2-yard run. Higgins then delivered his 34-yard TD run with 2:49 to go before halftime. Bayside answered with a quick six-play, 60-yard drive that ended with Noah Cain’s 1-yard run with 48 seconds to go before halftime.
Mars Hill led 14-6 at halftime, and kicker Carson Longshore kicked a 26-yard field goal to make it 17-6 with 3:55 to go in the third quarter. Bayside then drove 62 yards in eight plays, and Barnett’s TD pass to Collins and 2-point run by Billy Neill made it 17-14.
Mars Hill then took control. Penn capped a six-play 65-yard drive with a 3-yard scoring run to make it 24-14. After a Bayside punt rolled dead at the Panthers 9, Penn raced 89 yards for the game-clinching TD.
“I was looking up at the jumbotron to make sure no one was going to catch me,” said Penn, who added seven tackles on defense.
Barnett finished 22-of-37 passing for 283 yards and a touchdown. Monroe Partin caught seven passes for 84 yards. Cain had two catches for 57 yards and also scored on a 1-yard run. Neill led the Bayside defense with 9½ tackles.