By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

MOUNTAIN BROOK – On a night where Cris Bell’s squad was without standout quarterback Warren Shader, his Eagles traveled to region opponent Mountain Brook and got a potentially season-saving win via a 21-14 final. Shader, who sat out the game thanks to a concussion suffered in last week’s Hewitt-Tuscaloosa game according to Bell, was replaced by junior quarterback Wyatt Legas. Legas, in his second start of the season, came through in a big way, finishing 12-17 throwing the ball for 139 yards and a score while also amassing 55 yards on the ground on 12 carries and another touchdown to boot.

“Not having our quarterback (Shader) tonight obviously threw a wrench in us but I thought Wyatt did a heck of a job,” Bell said after the game. “Super, super effort on his part. And I thought it was a great effort on the part of the rest of the team to rally around him.”

Mountain Brook started the scoring late in the first quarter when the Spartans’ sophomore quarterback, Hamp Sisson, took the snap at the Oak Mountain seven yard line, was flushed out of the pocket, ran back to the 30 yard line on the far side of the field, cut back to the near side of the field, picked up a block and found the end zone. He covered roughly 50 yards on a seven-yard run to put his Spartans up 7-0 early.

On the ensuing drive, Legas found Noah Egan streaking down field for a huge first down pass. Later in the drive, on third down inside the Mountain Brook 20 yard line, Legas threw a perfect fade ball to Reid Golson, who had a step and a half on the defensive back trying to guard him, and the game was tied at 7-7.

Mountain Brook gave Oak Mountain a couple gifts by way of fumbles and muffed punts throughout the game, and after a Spartan muffed punt midway through the second quarter, the Eagles took possession of the ball at the Mountain Brook 37, and that drive eventually ended in a Coleman Reeves two-yard touchdown dive to give the Eagles the lead.

Mountain Brook answered on the next drive, and from inside the Oak Mountain 10 yard line, Sisson faked a quarterback sneak and threw a jump pass to his tight end, who fell into the end zone for the tying score, and the teams went into the half knotted at 14-14.

The only score of the second half came on a fourth down run from inside the one-yard line when Legas dove over the goal line to put the Eagles up 21-14.

Mountain Brook had a chance to answer late in the fourth quarter. Out of timeouts, the Spartans started to mount a drive, aided by an ill-timed penalty on the Eagles. On third down, Avery Holsomback laid a monster hit on Sisson as he was rolling out, causing Sisson’s past to fall short. One play later on fourth down, Holsomback finished the job, essentially in the backfield as soon as the ball was snapped, dropping Sisson and ending the game.

“There’s no easy week (in this region),” Bell said after the game. “It’s such a fine line. Tonight we learned how resilient we are. I really challenged them at halftime to come out and play with guts. I think in the first half Mountain Brook out-gutted us a little bit. We played a whale of a half defensively.”

Oak Mountain 3-4 (2-3) on the season and will host Spain Park next week as the Eagles try and get back to .500 in the region.