Rebels compete in 4th straight Unified title game
AUBURN – On the same field Auburn knocked off Alabama in an epic Iron Bowl five days prior, a dozen Vestavia Hills High School students played a football game of their own.
The Rebels took part in the Special Olympics Alabama Unified championship game for the fourth consecutive year on Wednesday afternoon at Jordan-Hare Stadium. In a tightly-contested game, Baldwin County defeated Vestavia Hills 27-20.
“Walking out of the tunnel and looking up, I was right up there in section 104 for the Iron Bowl (on Nov. 30). It was surreal,” said Carter Zulanas, one of three traditional students that played with the Rebels’ team this season, along with Knox Romeo and Graham Duncan.
In the game, the Rebels struck first, as Duncan caught a 35-yard pass from quarterback Austin Ballard on the first play of the game. Ballard rolled out to his right and hit Zulanas for the extra point to give Vestavia Hills an early 7-0 lead.
Baldwin County scored two straight touchdowns after that, as Hamilton Baker — a Daphne High School linebacker committed to Army — hit Trey Morrisette for a 4-yard score and Brian Talley threw a 25-yard pass to Baker to make it 13-7.
Duncan took a handoff from Ballard and darted 38 yards down the far sideline for a Vestavia touchdown. Duncan scored the extra point as well to give the Rebels a 14-13 edge. Vestavia head coach Terry Tingle called Ballard the team's “catalyst” and added that “he really gets it going for us.” Ballard finished the game with four completed passes for 79 yards and two touchdowns.
Baldwin County scored on the final play before halftime when Talley caught a 5-yard pass from Baker. The Bandits took a 21-14 lead into the half and never trailed again.
Baldwin County struck first in the second half, as Morrisette scored on a 4-yard reception from Baker to make it 27-14. Duncan scored on a 38-yard pass from Ballard to cut the deficit to 27-20.
To advance to the championship game, Vestavia Hills beat Lee County convincingly and upended the same Baldwin County in overtime in a round-robin format.
“We were really excited to be here,” Tingle said. “We expected to come in here and win. They were really hyped up about it. We’ve got a lot of older guys that are going to graduate. These are great kids. The guys that helped this year, Carter Zulanas, Graham Duncan and Knox Romeo did an outstanding job with our guys. They love them and play hard with them.”
Duncan led the team with 8.5 tackles and had 124 all-purpose yards, but the stats weren’t what he drew from his experience.
“They love this more than anything,” he said. “They’ve got a good attitude about everything all the time.”
“It was a blast,” Zulanas added. “I was looking forward to practice and to come out here to play with these guys today.”
Zulanas registered 4.5 tackles, Romeo had four tackles and Wilson Taylor added a tackle. Also on the team was Philip Trawick, Harrison Hill, Jonathan Fuentes, Alex Johnston, Ian Waugh, Garret Vance and Harrison Washington.
A victory would’ve been nice on Wednesday, but it was about far more than that.
“It’s so much fun, to see these guys happy,” Tingle said. “When it comes down to it, yeah, they want to win, but they just love playing and they love playing with each other. That’s what I love about it. We’re a big family.”