Rebels surprised by Huskies

Hewitt-Trussville’s patented “Husky Fast” offense certainly lived up to its name Friday night, as the offense scored early and often in the first half, en route to a 28-12 win over Vestavia Hills at Thompson Reynolds Stadium..

It was the first time in school history the Huskies defeated the Rebels.Vestavia HIlls had won 12 in a row.

“This is big,” Hewitt-Trussville head coach Josh Floyd said. “Everybody knows what they do over at Vestavia Hills, they’re a historical program.

“For us to come out here and get the first victory in Hewitt history is a big time honor for our kids.”

Vestavia Hills coach Buddy Anderson saw his team outphysicaled for the first time this season. “They’ve got a good football team,” Anderson said. “We’ve got work to do up front. We hurt ourselves.”

Husky quarterback Zac Thomas was on top of his game for Hewitt-Trussville in the win, despite throwing an interception on his first pass of the game. The senior signal-caller only completed 2-of-5 passes, including two interceptions, but he finished with 90 yards through the air in a rain-soaked game. One of his two completions was a 60-yard touchdown strike to running back Jarrion Street to give the Huskies a 14-0 lead in the second quarter.

Street rushed for 112 yard on 23 carries and two touchdowns.

Thomas, though, carried the load on the ground for the Huskies. He ran for 180 yards in the game and a touchdown just before halftime that put the game out of reach.

“We really prepared our running game,” Thomas said. “We knew if we were going to beat them, it would be by running the ball.”

Thomas credited his offensive line for opening the holes.

“They basically dominated the whole night,” Thomas said.

The Rebels threatened early after Hewitt-Trussville scored on a methodical 87-yard drive in the first quarter. Vestavia Hills drove 82 yards to the Hewitt 5-yard-line, and looked as though it would punch it in with first-and-goal, but the Husky defense thought otherwise.

“We should’ve scored on the drive early, but we blew three assignments and had three bad plays. You can’t do that against a good football team,” Anderson said. “We just have to learn from that.”

One of the reasons Hewitt-Trussville stopped Vestavia on the drive was the play of Bailey McElwain. The senior defensive end was in the Rebels’ backfield all night, and he came up with several big plays in the game.

“We worked hard all week and prepared to do what we do, and we executed perfectly tonight,” McElwain said.

Floyd was pleased with the defense overall, and said the stop near the goalline in the first half played a big role in the outcome of the game.

“Our defense was unbelievable tonight, we had a big stop near the goalline,” Floyd said.

Vestavia scored twice in the second half, something Anderson said he was proud to see.

Quarterback Brett Jones found Nolan Turner for a touchdown on the Rebels’ first drive of the second half, but the drive took more than half the third quarter to complete, leaving the Rebels with little time to mount any comeback. William Schaffeld scored as well, but with only 5:55 to go in the game, Hewitt-Trussville was able to recover the onside kick and run out the clock.

Vestavia Hills slips to 2-1, 1-1 in Class 7A, Region 3. The Rebels travel to region foe and rival Mountain Brook (1-2, 0-2) next week. The Spartans lost 21-14 at Thompson on Friday.