Above: Spain Park fans rush the field after a victory earlier this year. (Bernard Troncale/Alabama NewsCenter)

The streak is dead. Long live the streak.

Hoover City Schools have had a team in a championship game every year for the past 16 years.

Spain Park continues the streak of a Hoover school in the state championship. (Bernard Troncale/Alabama NewsCenter)

Spain Park’s 7-6 victory over Hoover in the Class 7A football semifinals ended the Bucs’ seven-year streak of playing in the Super 6/7. Hoover won four of those title tilts, the past three in a row.

But another streak lives on.

The 16-year streak continues at 7 tonight as the Jaguars take on McGill-Toolen for the Class 7A championship at Bryant-Denny Stadium at the University of Alabama. Each team is 12-1.

Like this year, Hoover’s elimination in 2007 made way for the suburban city’s other high school squad.

“Hoover’s holding up their end of the bargain with 14,” coach Shawn Raney said, “and we’ve got two appearances.”

Raney’s first clue that this year’s Jaguars could reach the final came after their first game, a 38-35 triple overtime loss to Austin in Decatur.

“The way our kids handled that … I felt better after a loss than I did the year before after we beat them,” he said. “I just saw something in this group of kids, the way they handled that. I didn’t know how good we were at all. I thought after watching the tape that they were a pretty good team.”

A comeback victory over Thompson notwithstanding, Raney’s best hint his team could reach the Super 7 came when Spain Park beat Hoover’s Bucs. The 17-0 win was the Jaguars’ first ever on the field; the other victory came via forfeit in 2007.

“I thought, ‘Shoot, if we can beat them, we can beat anybody,’” he recalled. “That’s how they’ve acted, how they’ve believed since that game.”