The Calera Eagles traveled to Maplesville Thursday night to play in a football jamboree and came out on top in two out of three contests.

Calera defeated the Maplesville junior varsity 7-0.

The Maplesville varsity toppled Calera 15-14. But Calera&8217;s varsity beat Jemison 14-13.

New head football coach Mack Thompson said his team gave up too many big plays on defense. He also said, &8220;We&8217;ve got to get a little better play out of our corner backs.&8221;

However, he said the team ran the ball well and passed well. He noted the play of Earl Haynes at quarterback, who went 12 for 16 passing. He also said the team rushed for about 200 yards in two quarters.

Thompson also noted the play of his entire receiving corps.

&8220;If we don&8217;t give up big plays, we will be alright,&8221; he said.

&8220;We didn&8217;t get anybody hurt&8221; and &8220;overall I was satisfied.&8221;

Scoring for Calera were Earl Haynes, two touchdowns; Kaderius Lacey one touchdown; Seith Merritte one touchdown; and Carlos Gomez went four for four on points after touchdown.

Also for Calera, Chris Anderson scored on a pass play from Paul Winterbottom in the junior varsity game.

Briarwood thumps Shades Valley at Vestavia jamboree

The Briarwood Christian Lions opened the 2006 football season with a 22-0 thumping of Shades Valley in a football jamboree on the road last Friday.

But Fred Yancey, head football coach for the Lions was not taking too much stock from the performance. &8220;I don&8217;t think we&8217;ve arrived,&8221; he said.

He said Riley White made a couple of nice catches and blocks for the team. And he had praise for Lance Coggins on defense at middle linebacker.

The Lions scored all of their points in the first quarter.

The first touchdown of the game came on a 14-yard pass from Barrett Trotter to Jonathan Sillers at the 10:03 mark of the first quarter. Matt Gordon added the point after.

The drive covered 80 yards in five plays.

The next score came on a 4-yard pass from Trotter to William Hoke at the 5:26 mark of the first quarter. Hoke scored the 2-point conversion.

The drive covered 56 yards in six plays.

Sillers scored the last touchdown of the night on a 2-yard run at the 3:33 mark of the first quarter. Gordon added the point after.

The drive covered 29 yards in four plays.

Trotter completed seven of 12 passes for 93 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran four times for 48 yards.

Will Noel rushed five times for 33 yards.

Sillers caught three passes for 49 yards while Riley White caught two passes for 37 yards.

Briarwood had 95 yards rushing and 93 yards passing for 198 yards of total offense.

Shades Valley was limited to 19 yards of total offense.

Briarwood will next host Vestavia this Friday night.

Montevallo plays jamboree game for experience

Montevallo Coach Jim King said there are different types of young football players… those who are young, but who have played football all their lives… and

there are those who are young and who have never played the game.

He has the second type of young team this season.

King said his front four, counting the spring were playing the first time. He said his secondary were a freshmen and a sophomore. And he said seven of 11 on defense were also first time players.

On top of that, King said his quarterback Desmond Piper was playing for the first time, as well.

King explained that he took his team to Fultondale to get them experience running plays, &8220;and that&8217;s what we did.&8221; He said his team got 24 offensive snaps.

King said the key last Thursday night&8217;s action was not the game, but that his team get&8217;s better.

He said quarterback Desmond Piper and the offensive line played well. And he said Kyle Stewart and Zac Stansell were leaders on the team who get things handled.

While there was no official scoring at Fultondale, King said the final score was 7-6 in favor of the opponents. He said the Dawgs missed their extra point try after Alex Gaddis gathered in a 42-yard touchdown strike from Piper.

He said Philip Evans led the team in rushing with 35 yards on 7 carries.

Herring likes intensity, energy from Wildcats

The Shelby County Wildcats

found themselves on the short end of 21-7 score against Moody and a 14-0 score against Mortimer Jordan at Mortimer Jordan Thursday night.

Herring said, &8220;I was real pleased with the effort from the kids. We had a lot of energy and intensity.&8221; He said the team made some little mistakes that were correctable.

He also said senior middle linebacker Richard Sutton stood head and above anybody on all three teams with big hits and tackles.

And senior Quarterback Aaron Howard scored on a 35 yard run