Xavier Wright had run his mouth earlier in the week, sitting at Justin Albert's house and talking about what he was going to do in Saturday's Class 6A championship game.

Albert rolled his eyes and considered the source: a wide-eyed sophomore who was eager to make a contribution to Prattville's efforts.

"He told me he was going to block a punt," Albert said. "I told him I was going to hold him to that."

Wright backed up his words in the Lions' 35-21 win over Hoover.

Wright broke through untouched and easily knocked down Jordan Means' punt. Zach Brownell recovered in the end zone to give Prattville a 7-0 lead.

More importantly, four plays into a game with the four-time defending state champion/MTV-darling Buccaneers, the Lions had a big dose of confidence.

"After I picked the ball up, I gave it to the referee and I felt something come over me," Brownell said. "I've never felt that in my life.

"I can't describe it in words. It was unbelievable."

The Lions admit they noticed a flaw in Hoover's punt protection and tweaked a regular rush to take advantage of it.

It's called "gap twist" and the Prattville line angles to one side and Wright stunts into the open hole. The Lions changed the side they usually run it from after watching John Curtis (La.) do it in a win over Hoover earlier this year.

"We went from the opposite side and it worked out perfect," said defensive coordinator Duwan Walker, who runs Prattville's punt block unit -- which head coach Bill Clark calls the team's "pride and joy" unit.

"It was something we reverted back to that we did this summer," Walker said. "We thought this was a perfect opportunity to do some twisting in the middle."

Albert said the Lions practiced their revamped "gap twist" at least 20 times in one day last week.

Wright ran between Hoover's right guard and right tackle and was on Means so quickly he had to shorten his stride.

"I did it for the team and for coach Lo," Wright said, referring to Prattville assistant Lorenzo "Lo" Pickett, who died before a Thanksgiving Day practice.

"Coach Lo always told us to cut one yard in front of the punter. He always said if we do that, we'd get it."

Brownell's job was to engage the punter's personal protector and free Wright's path to Means.

"Right when I saw Xavier, I knew he had it," Brownell said. "Xavier is so quick. Once he got through the line, I knew he had it."

The block also had irony.

Two years ago, when Hoover beat Prattville 22-7 for its third straight championship, the Buccaneers blocked two first-quarter punts and turned them into scores.

The second, which Hoover recovered in the end zone for a touchdown, made it 15-0.

"We wanted to take advantage of them like they did us," Clark said. "We probably practice our special teams more than anybody and (the 2004 blocks) bothered us so much because we work so hard on it."