Rebels rumble past Huffman

BIRMINGHAM — Two plays, posted back to back in the fourth quarter, captured the essence of the Vestavia Hills High School football team's 32-12 Thursday night victory over Class 7A, Region 3 opponent Huffman.  

On the first, Rebels linebacker Cooper Bishop tripped up Vikings quarterback King Williams as he danced around a collapsing pocket. The play, which pushed Huffman back five yards, resulted in Williams stomping his foot on the turf and dropping his hands to his side.

His frustration was palpable.

On the ensuing snap, Bishop’s fellow linebacker, Rob Barrentine, broke up a Williams pass as it arrived to his intended receiver. Barrentine’s pads jarred the ball loose, and the pass fell incomplete. Eventually, the drive ended in a fumble that the Rebels recovered.

It was their fourth turnover of the night.

“It’s definitely a big deal for us,” said defensive back Luke Denney, who returned a first-quarter interception for a touchdown. “We’ve got an aggressive defense, and that really plays a big role in that. We’ve got to play hard to help our offense out.”

And it did.

Thanks to its airtight defensive performance, Vestavia Hills sealed a key win to move to 2-2 on the season and 2-1 in region play. Last Friday, they took down Oak Mountain as they began their climb out of the 0-2 hole in which they started the 2017 slate.

“We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ll take the ‘W,’” Vestavia Hills head coach Buddy Anderson said. “We have to improve every week.”

On Thursday, the Rebels seemed to improve every drive.

Huffman (2-2, 1-2 in region) marched 84 yards down the field on the game’s opening possession to take an early 6-0 lead, as Vestavia Hills struggled to contain Vikings running back Nyre Holden. Holden scampered into the end zone from 12 yards out and accounted for 64 of the drive’s 84 yards.

But then the defense settled down.  

Denney’s pick-six on the next possession set into a motion a pattern that the Rebels followed throughout the night. Nearly every ensuing Huffman drive culminated in a turnover or punt, and rarely did the Vikings gain a first down.

That wasn’t the case for the Rebels.

After Denney’s interception return gave his team a 10-6 lead — Caleb Huber hit a 27-yard field goal on Vestavia Hills’ first possession to make it 6-3 — Coleman Petway and his offensive unit established some rhythm.

Petway completed 4-of-5 first-half passes for 68 yards and a touchdown. His 32-yard strike to Ben Willoughby at 4:56 in the second quarter increased the Rebels’ lead to 17-6.

Petway said the connection was the result of improvisation on behalf of Willoughby, who turned a routine out route into an out-and-up based on his defender’s positioning.

“Ben, as smart as he is, he rolled up the sideline, and it just turned out be a good play,” Petway said.

Vestavia Hills took its 17-6 lead into halftime, when Anderson said he told his team it needed to dial in on each play. His players took heed of the advice.

Barrentine’s third-quarter interception set up a 3-yard rushing touchdown from William Schaffeld that extended the Rebels’ edge to 25-6. Matthew Paugh added a 2-yard score in the fourth quarter, which came on fourth and goal.

Vestavia Hills surrendered a late touchdown, but it didn’t relent until the final buzzer sounded. Those final fourth-quarter plays underscored as much.

“We figured out that we had to play Vestavia football and nothing else,” said senior fullback Reed Stockton.

Next week, the team will attempt to carry its momentum into a non-region game at Helena.