Calera comes back for first win of season over Brookwood
Published 11:41 pm Friday, October 3, 2025
Calera secured its first win of the season in resurgent fashion with a homecoming victory over Brookwood. (For the Reporter/Reagan Hopper)
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By TIMOTHY BELIN | Special to the Reporter
CALERA – It was a homecoming game worth celebrating at Calera High School as the Eagles won their first game of the season against the Brookwood Panthers.
It wasn’t always easy, and the Eagles trailed by 12 points at the break, but a second-half rally ensured Calera returned from its bye week with a 43-29 win on Oct. 3.
“We kept fighting,” Calera head coach Scott Rials said. “Our guys have got a lot of heart, a lot of character and determination. We could have easily quit at halftime, we were down 19-7.
“We had a lot of adversity, but our guys showed great unity,” he added. “That’s the word I used. Stick together, have each other’s backs and fight till the clock goes to zero. I’m really proud of our coaches and our players.”
It was a tough start to the game for Calera as Brookwood pulled off a successful onside kick to steal the early possession from the Eagles. However, junior linebacker Jeremiah Pouncy saved his team by forcing a fumble on Calera’s 17-yard line, which was recovered by senior defensive lineman Jaylon Lee.
The Eagles then went up the other end and thought they had opened the scoring when senior quarterback Jordan Ward connected with freshman wide receiver Xzavier Boone from 44 yards out, but the touchdown was called back for a flag on the play. An incomplete on the following snap forced Calera into a punt instead.
It went from bad to worse as Brookwood took just three snaps to get the actual first touchdown of the night off a 81-yard pass. Though the kick was no good after a wild snap, Calera then went three-and-out and Brookwood scored almost immediately for the second time of the night.
Once again requiring just three plays, the visiting Panthers found a 49-yard passing touchdown with just under a minute gone in the second quarter.
The two teams exchanged punts before Calera thought it had finally gotten on the scoreboard, only to have a second touchdown called back for a penalty. This time, they did not let it affect the drive and still found the eventual score from 1-yard out, courtesy of senior running back Jordan Henderson.
Brookwood responded with a third touchdown of their own from 25 yards out but failed on an attempted two-point conversion to make it 19-7 to the visitors. The teams exchanged interceptions next, Calera’s claimed by junior defensive back Kenyon Russell, before heading into the break with the score unchanged.
Rials said he had his defensive and offensive coaches each analyze things on their own side before coming together to set a second-half game plan. He credited those adjustments from his staff for a dominating second half, while adding that he prayed for it too.
Calera players took the halftime messages to heart and immediately forced a Brookwood three-and-out at the start of the third quarter. The Eagles then raced down the field in just three plays, ending with a 65-yard rush by Henderson for his second of the night.
“That joker has got a huge heart,” Rials said of Henderson. “He’s got a lot of fight in him. He’s a guy we lean on a lot, we put a lot on him, but he can take it. He’s got a good football speed and good work ethic to get where he needs to go. So I’m really proud of Jordan Henderson, his character and attitude.”
While Brookwood responded with an 8-yard touchdown three minutes later from their next drive, the momentum inside Ricky M. Cairns Football Stadium had shifted. The Eagles immediately marched an 82-yard drive down the field, concluded by a Ward carry from five yards. Senior kicker Connor Busby remained perfect on the night to bring it back to a one-score game at 21-26.
Senior linebacker Camarien Yow got a massive fumble recovery three plays into the next Brookwood possession, and Calera made the Panthers pay.
Despite going into the final quarter on a fourth-and-12 from the 21-yard line, Ward found the pass to freshman wide receiver Ean Williamson to give the Eagles their first lead of the night. The senior quarterback then found Cayden Specks for a two-point conversion to make it 29-26 only 11 seconds into the fourth quarter.
With essentially an entire quarter left, the game was perfectly poised for a grandstand finish. That moment came almost exactly one minute after the previous touchdown, when senior defensive back Jerrin McCain returned a fumble recovery from the halfway line for another Calera touchdown. With a flag on the play, the Eagles feared yet another score would be chalked off, but the crowd erupted once the officials confirmed it was a penalty, quickly declined, against Brookwood.
The Panthers needed to get up the field fast now that they trailed by double digits and did so successfully. They went from their 33- to Calera’s 8-yard line in just five snaps, but Lee got a crucial sack on first-and-goal to halt their momentum. It was then Brookwood’s turn to have a touchdown called back for a penalty before an incomplete, broken up by Russell, and another tackle by Lee forced the Panthers to make a big decision.
With fourth-and-goal from the 10-yard line, Brookwood opted to play it safe and take the field goal. But with just under seven minutes left and still seven points separating the two teams, that meant Calera only needed to run down the clock to secure the victory.
The Eagles did just that, making just enough gains with the running game to advance 30 yards over the course of the next five minutes. Rials took a big risk to do so, calling a play on fourth-and-3 on his team’s 37-yard line. He later confirmed it was a ruse to get Brookwood to jump offsides, which they did.
“We tried to draw them off six or seven times and it didn’t work on any, but that one time it worked,” Rials said. “And for the offense, it’s hard for them to sit in there. You have that call, ‘don’t move, don’t move,” but our O-line, our whole offense did a good job of sitting in.
“If we hadn’t got it, we actually had a play called, but we probably would have taken a timeout, made sure, because it was still up in the air,” he added.
After keeping the ball for short gains on most of the snaps, Ward sprung a surprise in the game’s dying moments to suddenly rush for 34 yards, and then 13 more, to set up a first-and-goal on the 2-yard line. With 22 seconds left in the game, the quarterback converted from the short distance to seal the victory, Calera’s first of the season at the sixth attempt.
“He’s got a lot of heart, a lot of character and a lot of fight in him,” Rials said of Ward.
Ward did not start the game as quarterback, with sophomore Drew Majewski originally preferred in the role. Ward played as the team’s lead blocker on several snaps instead, but shifted back to his preferred position when Majewski injured his wrist early in the night.
“He could have been mad or upset because he wasn’t starting the game, but man, Jordan’s got a lot about him, a lot of character,” Rials said. “He didn’t pout, cry, whine. He just got in there and blocked. He was blowing that line back up, and that’s the toughness you want a quarterback to have. He’s got that toughness.”
Calera will hope to carry their momentum into next week when they resume region play. The Eagles travel to Chilton County at 7 p.m. October 10 to try and claim their first Class 6A, Region 3 scalp of the season.
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