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The Vestavia Hills football team can give a punch. The Rebels can also take a punch, then give one right back and end up the last one standing.
Led by Walker Minor’s three touchdowns and Toliver Chatwood’s two scores, Vestavia Hills defeated Oak Mountain 35-26 on Buddy Anderson Field at Thompson Reynolds Stadium in the Class 7A, Region 3 opener for both teams on Friday night.
With the Eagles at the Rebels 5-yard line on the first drive of the second half to start a second potential comeback of the game, Vestavia’s Reid Adams forced a fumble that teammate Nate Lewis recovered.
After a personal foul on the play, Minor capped a 12-play drive – all runs – that covered 79 yards with a 3-yard score that gave the Rebels (2-0, 1-0) a 35-13 lead.
“That was big by our defense getting the ball back and it was good to punch it in,” said Minor, who finished with 119 yards and two scores on the ground to go with 67 receiving yards and a touchdown catch. “It was really important. If we didn’t score right there we would have given them a chance, and we don’t want to give them any chances.”
The Eagles (0-2, 0-1) had clawed back into the game early in the second quarter after falling behind 14-0, and looked poised to start a second rally after being down 28-13 at the half. Oak Mountain opened the second half with a drive that covered 71 yards on nine plays, eight of them runs.
“If we could have punched it in right there, maybe we got a little selfish down there, maybe we should have made sure we had the ball,” Oak Mountain coach Cris Bell said. “I thought we had them on the ropes, we did have them on the ropes, and we wanted to keep pressing. But it’s one of those things that happens.”
The Rebels sprinted to a 14-0 lead halfway through the first quarter on their first two drives, capping them with scoring runs of 3 yards by Minor and a 6 yards by Chatwood, who finished with 59 yards on eight carries
The Eagles rallied with the next two scores to pull within 14-13. Quarterback Warren Shader ran in from 13 yards with 47 seconds left in the first quarter, and running back Daniel Salchert added a 31-yard scoring run with 8:15 left in the half, although the point-after was missed.
Vestavia Hills scored twice more to close out the half. Chatwood broke through with his second 6-yard touchdown run with 4:52 to go, and Minor caught a floater from quarterback Brett Jones in the left flat and went 15 yards for a touchdown with 15 seconds left in the half.
“We went into the locker room and knew it was going to be a close game, that it would be a fight,” Chatwood said. “They never quit, you can always count on them to fight back.”
Oak Mountain added a final touchdown in the fourth quarter when quarterback Warren Shader found a wide-open Noah Egan for a 44-yard scoring pass with 10:35 left in the game.
“It was close,” said Shader, who rushed for 108 yards and to scored and completed six of 12 passes for 76 yards. "But we turned the ball over in the red zone, it happens.
“It always sucks going 0-1, it always sucks losing, but it's football.”
