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Trailing by 14 at the half, Oak Mountain’s defense was exploited in the third quarter as it falls to Vestavia Hills 42-14. (For the Reporter/Barry Clemmons)

By TYLER RALEY | Special to the Reporter

NORTH SHELBY – After trailing the Vestavia Hills Rebels 14-0 at halftime and cutting it to one score in the third quarter, the Oak Mountain Eagles had all they needed to storm back on Oct. 11.

However, those efforts were short-lived as defensive miscues quickly cost the Eagles, leading to a 42-14 defeat at Heardmont Park.

Things may have gotten out of hand on Oak Mountain’s home turf, but head coach Shane McComb was proud of how his boys played in the middle portion of the game.

“I’m proud of the guys for the most part. We got it to 14-7 in the third quarter, the guys played tough,” McComb said. “Overall, until that bad stuff started happening, I was extremely proud of the guys. It was 50-0 last year, this year it’s 14-7 in the third quarter. We’re playing hard, we’re getting a lot better, our program is coming forward the way we need it to be.”

Heading into the late stages of the third quarter still down 14 points, Eagles quarterback Will O’Dell led his team to the Rebels’ 22-yard line threatening to score.

Two incomplete passes and a sack set up fourth-and-19 from the 31-yard line, and needing to score, O’Dell heaved it up to wide receiver Zach Fitzgerald, who came down with the ball in triple coverage and cut the score to 14-7.

Vestavia took two plays to set the record straight on the ensuing possession as quarterback Charlie Taffe completed a touch pass to Luke Stubbs on the far sideline, who made a house call of 54 yards and put the lead back at 14 points.

The Rebels, however, were not done there.

Rolling the dice before the fourth quarter, Vestavia executed a perfect onside kick and recovered it to get the ball with great field position and some huge momentum.

It only took four plays for the Rebels to strike once again. Taffe took it from three yards out after an aggressive rushing attack from Bruce Littleton, giving his team a 28-7 lead and two touchdowns in the span of 1:46 of game time.

This game seemed to be trending towards this exact direction early on, but the Eagles stepped up to the task.

On the opening drive of the game with Vestavia Hills driving down the field, Stubbs helped put his team inside the red zone with a chance to take the early lead. A two-yard loss and an incomplete pass stalled the Rebels though, setting up Owen Simpson for a 33-yard field goal attempt, which missed wide to the left.

Oak Mountain’s ensuing possession saw it moving the ball early. However, the penalties became a major issue in its production.

After a 20-yard pass play to Fitzgerald on the first offensive play got the ball to the 40, a false start and personal foul on the Eagles pushed them back to their own 20-yard line. While they eventually converted, a third penalty later in the drive killed all momentum, eventually forcing a punt.

Vestavia Hills used this to its advantage, and after a 32-yard catch and run to Chase Webb set it up in the red zone, Taffe called his own number a few plays later to give his team a 7-0 lead.

Oak Mountain got well into Rebels territory on its next drive thanks to a string of short gains by O’Dell, only to be plagued by a false start penalty on third down that eventually pushed it out of field goal range and ended the first quarter.

Vestavia Hills began the second quarter with a series of runs towards midfield and was aided even more by yet another Eagles penalty, pushing it across midfield.

That is when Littleton picked up another first down on his own before handing the reins to Carson Mann, who eventually took a jet sweep from 15 yards out and into the end zone, finishing a 13-play drive that put the Rebels up 14-0.

Oak Mountain saw its best chance to score towards the end of the first half.

After an encroachment penalty on Vestavia Hills set the Eagles up inside the 15-yard line, running back Marty Myricks fumbled the ball at the 9-yard line on third down, setting up a fourth down from that point.

Needing five yards and a score, O’Dell completed a pass to Zach Fitzgerald, who was tackled just short of the line to gain and turned it over on downs at the Rebels own 5-yard line.

Following the break, Oak Mountain knew what it needed to do and, after stringing together two impressive defensive stands in the third quarter, cut the lead to one score with a miraculous connection from O’Dell to Fitzgerald, emphatically making it 14-7 with 2:46 in the third quarter.

McComb was impressed with how dynamic Fitzgerald has been for his offense this season.

“It’s been great to have him back this season,” McComb said. “I’m happy to have him. He’s a heck of a player. He’s got good hands and made some big plays for us obviously to make it 14-7 at that point, that was a huge play on fourth down.”

The Rebels ran the table following that touchdown, both literally and figuratively.

The 54-yard touchdown pass from Taffe to Stubbs was followed by a personal foul on the Eagles, which gave Vestavia Hills head coach Robert Evans all he needed to decide to take an onside kick, which worked to perfection.

Littleton ran it through the Eagles from then on, taking it from Oak Mountain’s 39-yard line to the seven with the help of another personal foul, setting Taffe up to make two runs towards the end zone and extend the Rebels’ lead to 21 points.

They carried that into the fourth quarter, which was all about Vestavia extending things even more.

Littleton continued his fantastic night on Vestavia Hills’ opening drive in the fourth, running the ball five consecutive times and finding the end zone from seven yards out to make it 35-7. He later scored another touchdown with under a minute left in the game.

O’Dell made sure that the Eagles did not go home with just one score though, getting the ball to Fitzgerald on two consecutive plays that totaled 54 yards. Then, from the 1-yard line, O’Dell called his own number to secure a score with 5:34 left in action.

The senior quarterback finished his night 21-for-35 passing with 278 yards and a touchdown. His number one target in Fitzgerald finished as the leading receiver for the entire game tonight with 156 yards and the one score.

That did not help however, as the Oak Mountain defense could not stop Littleton on the other side of the ball, who totaled 149 yards on 19 carries and two touchdowns.

The other thing that did not fall the Eagles way was penalties, getting called for 11 of them throughout the game.

McComb was not pleased with the penalties, expecting better from his team.

“The biggest thing is the personal fouls and stuff we had in the second half,” McComb said. “That type of stuff is unacceptable and it leads to showing a quitting mentality, so we’ve got to make sure we fix that right away.”

With the loss, Oak Mountain falls to 3-4 on the season and 1-4 in region play, falling almost completely out of the Class 7A, Region 3 playoff picture.

The Eagles have two more region games left, but look to bounce back next week with the season’s final road test at Hewitt-Trussville.

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