BIRMINGHAM – Sweet Water used three touchdowns from MVP Johnny Lockett and an overpowering defense Friday to beat Speake 42-0 for its third straight Class 1A championship.

Lockett had touchdown runs of 45 and 17 yards, and he caught a 36-yard scoring pass from Damaraquis Williams. Lockett ran for 171 yards on 17 carries, and Jeremy Landrum added 118 on just three rushes, including a 61-yard gain that set up the first score.

Led by Joseph Hyde with eight tackles and Dematrae Griffin with six, the Bulldogs (14-1) held Speake (12-3) to only 91 yards offense, and minus-16 in the decisive second quarter, when Sweet Water scored three touchdowns.

With only 30 players on its roster, Speake — which is from Danville in the Tennessee Valley — was overmatched from the start by the larger, faster Sweet Water, located in Marengo County in west Alabama.

“They keep coming in waves at you,” said Bobcats coach Royal Carpenter. “For a 1A team they are awfully tough.”

Sweet Water, which outscored opponents 178-14 in four playoff games and recorded seven shutouts on the year, won its eighth state championship overall.

“Somebody wanted to know if they get old. They don’t. They just get sweeter,” said coach Stacy Luker.

Jeremy Landrum ran 55 yards for a touchdown, and Christopher Landrum scored on a 7-yard run. Williams had a 1-yard sneak for a TD.

Speake couldn’t get any closer to the end zone than the Sweet Water 15 late in the game, when Cody Voss threw an incomplete pass to Armadeus Polk in the end zone.

Polk led the Speake offense with 68 yards on 19 carries. Voss, a 5-foot-10, 135-pound sophomore, completed four of 10 pass attempts for 24 yards with one interception.