Football: No. 2 Clay-Chalkville 45, Pinson Valley 35
Nick Gibson ran for three touchdowns and caught an Errius Collins pass for another, but it wasn’t enough to hold off second-ranked neighbor Clay-Chalkville, as the Cougars won by a 45-35 score Friday night.
Gibson tied the game at 7-7 early on a 1-yard scoring run, then put the Indians ahead by a point with 50 seconds left in the first quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run.
Clay’s Terelle West went yard for yard with Gibson all night, and won the stats battle with 166 yards rushing compared to 156 for Gibson. West scored the Cougars’ first two touchdowns on runs of 12 and 76 yards; the 1-point difference was a missed extra point on the second TD.
Clay went ahead with two quick touchdowns in the second period, as quarterback Tyrell Pigrome ran for nine yards and threw a 12-yard scoring toss to Nico Collins.
Collins closed the gap to six points just before halftime, when he threw 38 yards to Desmond Williams for a touchdown with 17.5 seconds left in the half.
A Patrick Millican 21-yard field goal stretched the Clay lead out to nine points halfway through the third quarter, but Gibson struck just 41 seconds later with a 60 touchdown dash, and the Cougars’ advantage was down to two points.
But it was West again to spread the margin out a bit, as he caught a 14-yard pass from Pigrome for a score with 2:01 left in the quarter. Simmons caught a pass from Pigrome for a 2-point conversion, and the lead was 10 points for Clay.
Gibson put the home team back to within three points with 8:04 left in the game on a 10-yard pass from Collins. But Pigrome himself put the game out of reach on an 18-yard scoring run with 85 seconds left to play.
Collins was 10-for-14 with one interception and 204 yards on the night for the Tribe. Pigrome was 13-for-19 for 198 yards and two touchdowns in passing, and ran for 81 yards and two touchdowns.
Pinson Valley (2-3, 1-2 region) now faces a must-win game against Center Point on Oct. 17, and must also take care of business at Huffman on Oct. 3.