The Paul W. Bryant High School football team has forfeited Friday's region game at Hillcrest for reasons related to COVID-19, Hillcrest coach Sam Adams told Tide 100.9.

Paul Bryant Coach Eldrick Hill, revealed that someone in close contact with the team ended up testing positive for COVID-19, forcing the players and staff into a 14-day quarantine.

The forfeit eliminates the Stampede from playoff contention, dropping its record to 4-5 overall and 2-3 in Class 6A, Region 4. The team began the season 0-4 as it made up for practice time it lost over the summer due to COVID-19, but it had won its previous four games entering this week.

Bryant will also be forced to forfeit its final regular season game against Hueytown (3-4, 3-1) that was scheduled for Aug. 30.

Coach Hill is exploring options with his administration to schedule a final game once the quarantine period is completed.

"I would love to play anybody, to give these guys another opportunity to play, for those seniors to have an opportunity to play one last game, knowing that it's your last game," said Coach Hill.

Hillcrest (7-1, 4-1) now sits a half-game ahead of Hueytown, which gave it its only loss, and McAdory, which it beat last week, in the region standings. Hueytown and McAdory play each other this week, though, in a game that will determine if the Patriots have a chance to win the region title. They play Bessemer City (1-6, 1-3) on Aug. 30.

According to the GoFan website, which manages ticket purchases for Hillcrest home games, the refund process will begin once the school notifies GoFan of the cancelation and requests that tickets be refunded.

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