Thompson rallies past No. 1 Hewitt-Trussville after Tabb pick-six sparks second-half surge
Published 11:50 pm Friday, October 3, 2025
Thompson used a Damonte Tabb pick-six to spark a 21-2 rally and take down No. 1 Hewitt-Trussville on the road to take over first place in the region. (For the Reporter/Markee Canada)
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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
TRUSSVILLE – In the Thompson Warriors’ Week 6 loss to Clay-Chalkville, it proved to be a pick six during the first drive of the second half that flipped the game in the Cougars’ favor.
In Week 7, it was the case again, but this time, Thompson came up with it.
At the end of a lengthy opening drive to start the third from the Hewitt-Trussville Huskies, Jack Floyd tried to find his man in the right side of the end zone only to find Damonte Tabb waiting instead at the 2-yard line.
“I saw it coming,” Tabb said. “They got a FIB, formation in the boundary, I knew the out route was coming, so I just jumped it. Just being a savage football player.”
It turned into a savage play. Tabb booked it down the sideline through wide open space the entire way and scored the 98-yard pick-six to increase the lead to 20-10.
It was the first of three second-half touchdowns that helped flip the game from a 13-10 halftime score to a 34-12 final on Oct. 3 at Hewitt-Trussville Stadium as the Warriors outscored the undefeated No. 1 Huskies 21-2 in the second half.
“I feel like we belong here,” Tabb said as the Warriors took over sole possession of first place in Class 7A, Region 3. “We’ve been doing this for the last three years, so for someone to say that they’re No. 1 and we not, I feel like that’s disrespect and we showed them.”
“I think that Hewitt does a great job,” Thompson coach Mark Freeman said. “I appreciate the way that they play football, the way they coach their kids and the way their kids play. They’re a good football team. To beat them over here is a great victory.”
After a Thompson punt to open the game, Hewitt quickly punished the Warriors by turning a simple checkdown pass into a 53-yard gain on its very first offensive play. Thompson’s defense buckled down from there though and forced a 45-yard field goal, which the Huskies converted for the 3-0 lead with 7:43 left in the first.
The Warriors went heavy on the passing to get downfield before keeping the drive alive with a third-down run inside the 10. Thompson nearly got six before dropping a ball in tight coverage in the end zone, and Ethan Black stepped up with a 25-yard field goal to tie it at 3-3 with 3:10 remaining in the first.
The defense came up big for the Warriors with a three-and-out, and Trent Seaborn proceeded to slice and dice Hewitt with passes to Mehkii Billingsley, Dedrick Kimbrough and other to march down the field ahead of the end of the first.
Then, on the first play of the second quarter, Seaborn took the play-action snap and rolled left to find Pryce Lewis in the end zone for the 14-yard score, putting the visitors up 10-3 with 11:52 left in the second.
However, a personal foul on the return gave the Huskies free yardage to start the ensuing drive. It stalled out near the red zone, but instead of giving up another field goal, Thompson blocked the 36-yard attempt to preserve the score line.
Lewis kickstarted the next drive with a first-down catch before a defensive pass interference call on a deep ball set up the Warriors well. Seaborn missed the end zone on third down to bring on Black for the 36-yard field goal, making it a 13-3 lead.
The teams traded short drives before Hewitt got the ball with 1:38 remaining until the break. Jack Floyd ran a quick and efficient two-minute drill to get near the red zone, and a defensive pass interference call got his team on the 15-yard line.
Floyd capitalized on the lapse by rolling right to find a leaping Dylan Cope for the 15-yard touchdown, cutting the deficit to 13-10 before the break and giving his team a chance to double up when receiving the ball to start the third.
Hewitt drove down the field thanks to solid plays and multiple Thompson penalties before getting to the 1-yard line. The Huskies called for back-to-back passes on third and fourth down, and while they were incomplete on the first one, they weren’t so lucky the second time.
That’s when Tabb jumped the pass near the end zone and took it to the house for a 98-yard pick-six to extend the lead to 20-10 with 7:34 left in the third.
“That kid is one of the most underrated DBs I’ve ever seen in my life,” Seaborn said. “He’s worked so hard to get to that point, and that play, it just shows why he should have every offer in the world. The kid is special.”
It wasn’t all Thompson from there as a Hewitt punt on the ensuing drive went to the 2-yard line, setting up a safety on the first play of the drive when Woogie Crawford blew up the run.
It cut the gap to 20-12 to make it a one-score game with 5:25 left in the third, but those were the only points the Huskies would score in the second half. The Warriors forced three-and-outs on their next two drives and capitalized on the offensive end.
First, Thompson quickly got the ball 72 yards down the field in 3:04 thanks to first-down grabs from Moseley and Lewis, including a third-down catch from Lewis to get to the 11-yard line. Seaborn then found Trey Knight in the corner of the end zone for the 8-yard grab and the 27-12 lead with 1:23 remaining in the third.
Then, Thompson milked most of the fourth quarter clock with a lengthy drive, using Knight, RJ Evans and Tanner Ehmen to keep the drive alive and march down inside the 5-yard line. Seaborn called his own number from the 4-yard line, faking the handoff for the short score.
The run made it a 34-12 game with time winding down, and a turnover on downs on the ensuing drive sealed the road win.
Seaborn finished 32-of-40 for 304 yards and two passing touchdowns plus 26 rushing yards for an additional score.
Knight was his top target with seven catches for 85 yards and a touchdown. Lewis had seven grabs for 69 yards and a touchdown, Mosley went for 51 yards off six catches and Dedrick Kimbrough took four catches for 40 yards. In all, eight players recorded at least one catch.
After the game, Seaborn said the team’s mentality was solely focused on winning, not about making some kind of statement against the top team in Class 7A.
“All we were worried about was winning,” Seaborn said. “We don’t care about all the glitz and glamour, we don’t care about the media. We just come out here and do our own thing, coming off of a tough loss, but we’re back to region play, to a very hard region schedule, so we’re just focused on winning our region games.”
Freeman pinpointed the pick-six as the perfect example of playing the kind of situational football that they want to play.
“At the end of the day, you have to be aware of where you’re at in the football game. You’ve got to know where the other team’s best player might be, you’ve got to anticipate plays, and our defense did a great job,” Freeman said. “They were on the field a long time. That was a long drive that Hewitt came out of halftime and it was going to put them ahead. It flipped the game on a great play, and that’s just football. It’s happened to us twice this year, the first drives of the half went against us, we lost both games.”
Freeman referred to both the Grayson and Clay-Chalkville losses, both in non-region play, as well as the second-half surge against now-No. 8 Carver-Montgomery as tests that made them better. He believes those lessons will come in handy down the stretch, and he also believes they were useful now against Hewitt.
“I think those three games, you put them in a jar and at the end of the year, I think you fall back on those games, just like tonight,” Freeman said of the non-region stretch. “It was tight at halftime, we had our chances in the red zone first half, we didn’t produce like we needed to, but it’s football and we’re learning how to play football. You’ve got to know how to play the game, and every week, we’re learning something good about the football game.”
After taking their record to 5-2 overall and 4-0 in region play, the Warriors will look to take those lessons into next week’s home showdown with the Hillcrest Patriots of Tuscaloosa on Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. at Warrior Stadium.
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