Clay-Chalkville's Kameron Prewitt (21) is proving to be hard for Gardendale linebacker Steven Crowder (15) to catch, as the Cougars ran to a 45-20 victory Friday night. 

“Go west, young man,” is an old saying often attributed to author Horace Greeley.

Coach Matt Plunkett might have had some advice Friday night for his Gardendale defense that sounded somewhat similar: “Stop West, young man.”

Clay-Chalkville running back Terelle West ran for 230 yards on 21 carries, including a 98-yard touchdown dash that got his team out of a huge hole on third down, as the top-ranked Cougars survived an early scare to defeat the Rockets 45-20.

Gardendale did pull off one feat that apparently no other opponent has all season — they actually had a lead over the Clay-Chalkville, though only by one point because of a missed extra point on the first score of the game.

That lead would be as short-lived as it was slim, as Clay erased the lead a little more than a minute after it had been established.

While West got much of the attention, quarterback Ty Pigrome had an impressive night of his own. He engineered a 12-play drive on their first possession of the game, finishing it off with a 1-yard touchdown run of his own. It came with 5:01 left in the first quarter.

Coach Walter Wood actually took an intentional delay of game penalty on the extra point attempt to get out of a hole in the field, but the snap to kicker Patrick Millican was bobbled and the conversion failed.

The Rockets took the lead early in the second quarter, when Austin Hicks took the ball and found running room down the Cougar sideline, dashing 35 yards for the score.

But Pigrome was quick to respond, as he found Dominique Collins for a 44-yard touchdown pass soon afterward.

Later in the half, Clay was backed up by a Hicks punt that was downed at the 3-yard line, and two plays resulted on a 1-yard loss. But West made up for that situation when he brought the Cougar fans to their feet, as he speeded by them for the 98-yard scoring run.

The Rockets cut the margin to six points with just 50 seconds left before halftime, as quarterback Zac Cupps looked for a receiver, couldn’t find one, but found a seam to run through. He cut one way, then the other to ramble 17 yards for the score.

Down by just six points to the top team in the state at the break, Gardendale seemed to have the momentum, but that slipped away in the third period. After recovering a fumble on a Pigrome pass to Artevius Smith that was picked up by the Rockets’ Demetrius King, their following drive fizzled out at the Cougar 37.

Clay bogged down on their next possession, but a punt put the home team back on its own 9-yard line. And on the next play, Cupps couldn’t find a way out of his own end zone, and was tackled for a safety.

That play seemed to suck the life out of the rockets, as Clay responded after the free kick with a quick drive, capped by a Pigrome pass to Terrell Simmons for a 31-yard touchdown.

The visitors scored again on the first play of the fourth quarter, thanks to a 1-yard touchdown run by West. Then after Cupps threw an interception on fourth-and-10, Pigrome took off on a 44-yard scoring run with 9:56 left in the game.

The Rockets showed signs of life on the ensuing kickoff, and also some creativity. Hicks took the kick deep, and ran straight ahead until he encountered a wall of players. He then tossed the ball backwards to Juan Jackson following behind; Jackson then ran around the wall and sped 77 yards for a touchdown.

Gardendale later blocked a 25-yard Millican field goal attempt, but yielded another safety late when Cupps was backed up into his own end zone, and couldn’t handle an errant snap that went over the end line.

The Cougars racked up tons of yardage, with Pigrome throwing 15 completions in 22 attempts for 228 yards. Coupled with a whopping 401 yards rushing, Clay-Chalkville gained a total of 629 yards for the night. Besides West’s big numbers, Smith also ran for 107 yards on 12 carries, and Collins added 93 yards on four pass receptions.

The Rockets, on the other hand, struggled to gain significant yardage from scrimmage, especially in the second half. They gaines 83 yards on the ground and 92 in the air, and had a net offense of zero yards for the entire second half.

The Cougars remain undefeated, and hope to finish off a perfect 10-0 regular season when they travel to Hewitt-Trussville’s brand new stadium on Friday night.

The loss for Gardendale (5-4, 4-2 region), coupled with an upset win by Pinson Valley over fifth-ranked Shades Valley, means that three teams are tied for the second through fourth positions in the Region 6 standings. Each of those teams are 1-1 against the other two, so the tiebreaker for playoff seeding comes down to total wins by non-region teams defeated. The Rockets have only their win over Fort Payne, which has won six games thus far. The Mounties already have 12 wins by beaten opponents (and they face Vestavia Hills next week), but the Indians could surpass that with a win over Minor next Thursday. Add six wins by the Tigers to seven from Oneonta — possibly eight — and the Tribe could end up with the second seed and home field advantage for the first round.