ALABASTER — For three autumns, the script had been the same. Thompson would look like the better team for a half, or a quarter, or a drive, and Clay-Chalkville would leave with the win. A 36-33 decision in 2023. A 14-13 overtime finish in 2024. A 28-24 comeback last September. Alabama commit Trent Seaborn had never beaten the Cougars. On Thursday night at Warrior Stadium, that streak ended in the most complete way possible.
No. 1 Thompson beat No. 2 Clay-Chalkville 37-13, turning a heavyweight meeting of defending state champions into a second-half clinic and improving to 2-0. The Warriors, last year’s Class 7A title winners now competing in 6A, scored 37 of the next 43 points after falling behind 7-0 and never trailed again. Clay-Chalkville dropped to 1-1overall.
The night began the way so many Clay-Chalkville nights begin: with the clock bleeding and the visitors in control. Junior quarterback Cornelius Eldridge Jr. marched the Cougars nearly six minutes on the opening possession and found Nasir Ray on a 31-yard touchdown. Midway through the first quarter, it was 7-0, and the packed Alabaster stands had that familiar feeling.
Seaborn did not let it last. Feeling pressure, he rolled left and hit Maryland commit Mason McClure in stride for a 47-yard touchdown. The extra point missed, so Thompson still trailed 7-6, but the tone had changed. On the next Warrior series, Seaborn went over the top to Arkansas commit Darion Moseley for 56 yards and the lead. Thompson 13-7. From that snap on, the Cougars never led again.
The first-half closer belonged to CJ Cowley, the same back-receiver hybrid who had already found the end zone in Week 1 at Central-Phenix City. Seaborn dropped a 15-yard touchdown pass to him with 1:06 left before intermission. The kick was good. Halftime: Thompson 20, Clay-Chalkville 7. Seaborn had three touchdown passes before the break and accounted for the bulk of Thompson’s first-half offense. Clay-Chalkville put together one more long drive before the half; it ended in a turnover.
That was the game’s last real argument. Thompson’s defense, which had allowed an opening-drive touchdown and little else, spent the second half taking the air out of a Cougars attack that had thrown for 300 yards in a Week 1 win over Creekside (Ga.). Through two games, the Warriors have outscored Central-Phenix City and Clay-Chalkville 37-6 after halftime. Clay-Chalkville’s only remaining score came in the closing minutes, with the outcome already decided.
The offense finished the job with 17 unanswered points after the break. Thompson added a field goal and another score in the third quarter, then Seaborn found tight end Tanner Ehmen — a USF commit — for his fourth touchdown pass as the fourth quarter opened. Four touchdowns, four different targets: McClure, Moseley, Cowley, Ehmen. It was Seaborn’s second straight week with four scoring throws after a 331-yard, four-touchdown night in the 41-14 season-opening win at Central-Phenix City.
Seaborn has played at Thompson since the eighth grade when he had to start in the first round of a playoff game. He has played in state championship games as a matter of routine. He had never beaten this opponent. That is what Thursday was about as much as the 37-13 final. Clay-Chalkville had owned the recent series. Thompson, under Mark Freeman, had answered almost every other challenge in Alabama football. This one had stayed on the ledger.
Freeman’s roster is built for nights like this. McClure, clocked at 22.8 mph on the McClure touchdown according to one report, gives Seaborn a vertical answer. Moseley is the deep-ball specialist who has been doing this in Warrior uniforms for years. Cowley can win from the backfield or the slot. Ehmen is the safety-valve tight end who finished the passing night. Behind them is a defensive front that includes Oregon commit Cam Pritchett and a secondary full of Power conference pledges. After the opening drive, that group treated Eldridge the way it treated Central a week earlier: squeeze the pocket, take away the explosive play, force the visitor to live in long down-and-distance.
Clay-Chalkville is not going away. Stuart Floyd’s Cougars are 26-4 over his first two-plus seasons and remain a 5A title contender. Eldridge can still beat a defense over the top, as the Ray touchdown showed. The problem on Thursday was everything after that first series. The Cougars could not run consistently, could not protect late, and could not match Thompson’s pace once Seaborn started hitting shots down the field. A late touchdown trimmed the final score. It did not change the night.
The series now reads differently. Clay-Chalkville still leads the all-time meetings, but the last three one-possession heartbreaks are no longer the last word. Thompson is 2-0 with wins over Central-Phenix City and Clay-Chalkville, the two programs most often named as the Warriors’ strongest early tests. Vestavia Hills comes to Warrior Stadium next. Clay-Chalkville goes on the road to Springville. Region play starts next week. The statement, though, is already on the board.
Thompson did not sneak out of this one. The Warriors answered the first punch, took the lead on a 56-yard strike, put 20 on the board by halftime, and closed with the same second-half defense that has defined the first two weeks of 2026. Seaborn threw four touchdowns to four teammates. The losing streak is gone. For one Thursday night in Alabaster, the argument over who sits first in Alabama was not close.
