By WILL DAVIES / Special to the Reporter

HOOVER – The Vestavia Hills Rebels boy’s soccer team went on the road and beat the Spain Park Jaguars 2-1 Friday night.

Vestavia broke the 0-0 tie in the 12^th minute of the game on a free kick. The Rebels took the kick about 15 yards outside of the box and fed a beautiful through ball into the box to Connor Johnston. Johnston took a phenomenal touch and then sent a cracker into the back of the net to put Vestavia up 1-0.

The score remained 1-0 for the rest of the first half, but Vestavia Hills had many chances to score. Spain Park keeper, Trevor Bernier, made many phenomenal saves to keep the Jaguars in the game.

The Rebels scored their second goal of the game with 31 minutes remaining when Collin Wheeler broke through the defense and found the back of the net to make the score 2-0.

Rebels head coach Leo Harlan said the key for the Rebels offense all night was, “to keep working hard.”

The Jaguars were not going down with a fight. Their offense was held stagnant the entire first half, but turned it up a notch in the second half, making multiple runs to the goal and having many opportunities. Spain Park finally broke through and scored their first goal of the game with 13 minutes remaining.

Liam Condone fed the ball into the box and Evan Boykin sent it home after it ricocheted off of a Rebel defender. The goal made the score 2-1 with a lot of time left on the clock.

The Jaguars didn’t let up and had several more chances, but the Rebel defense didn’t panic and kept the lead. “We just stayed calm there at the end,” said Coach Harlan.