We Speak Flag / 7v7 Football

Playoff Football Comes to Seale: Russell County Hosts Northridge in the 5A First Round

Published

1 hour ago

November 2, 2026

Russell County's No. 9 makes a leaping catch against Valley.

Photo via Russell County flag football (@rchsflagfootball) on Instagram.

The 5A playoffs are coming to Seale. Russell County hosts Northridge on Tuesday, Nov. 3 in a Class 5A first round game, a matchup that sends the Jaguars on the road after Northridge’s own team account announced the trip to Russell County High School for the playoff opener.

Northridge arrives with eight wins in 15 games and a season that started fast. The Jaguars shut out Mountain Brook 26-0 on Sept. 1, beat Tuscaloosa County 27-13 on Sept. 3 and blanked Sipsey Valley 35-0 on Sept. 15. The region run was rougher, with a 19-0 loss at Central-Tuscaloosa on Oct. 1 and a 26-6 loss at Hillcrest on Oct. 8, and Northridge closed the regular season with a loss at Sipsey Valley on Oct. 27.

Russell County’s full record could not be verified from published schedules, but the Warriors have shared the field with strong competition. Their confirmed results include a 33-6 loss at Prattville on Sept. 1, and their playmakers have been busy, including the leaping catch by their No. 9 against Valley on Oct. 30 shown in the photo at the top of this story.

It is one of 16 first round matchups in the Class 5A bracket, and the kind of game the new four bracket format was built to create: a Tuscaloosa program against an east Alabama program with a season on the line. The winner moves into the second round of a 5A bracket that includes the hottest team in the class, Boaz. For Russell County, the first step is defending its home field.

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We Speak Flag / 7v7 Football

James Clemens Gets the Hardest Draw in 6A: A Playoff Trip to Hewitt-Trussville

Published

1 hour ago

November 2, 2026

We Speak Media

James Clemens players in action during the Jets' Oct. 20 win over Mae Jemison.

Photo by 100Shotz Media via James Clemens girls flag (@jchsgirlsflag) on Instagram.

Every bracket has a draw nobody wants, and in Class 6A it belongs to James Clemens. The Jets travel to Hewitt-Trussville on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 6 p.m. for a first round playoff game, a road trip confirmed on Hewitt-Trussville’s official athletics schedule.

James Clemens, from Madison, won six of its 14 games and closed the regular season the right way, with a 6-0 shutout win at Columbia on Oct. 27. The Jets’ wins include a 36-6 rout of Bob Jones, a 35-0 shutout of St. John Paul II, a 31-13 win over Mae Jemison on Oct. 20 and an 18-0 shutout of Hazel Green. The losses show the gap the Jets have to close. Gadsden City beat them 36-6 on Oct. 22, and Sparkman edged them 13-6 on Oct. 13.

Hewitt-Trussville is the standard on the other sideline. The Huskies are one of the powers of the 6A bracket, and the program’s flag account still points to the inaugural state title it won in 2021, before flag became an official AHSAA championship sport.

Three of the Jets’ six wins were shutouts, so the defense has traveled before. The game is also one of eight first round matchups in the Class 6A bracket, while eight other teams, including Spain Park and Smiths Station, sit out the week on byes and wait for the winners.

For James Clemens, the math is simple. The Jets have already shown they can pitch a shutout and score in bunches against their own level. Tuesday asks them to do it in the hardest building in the bracket.