Eagles blaze past Hornets in Week 0
BIRMINGHAM – Like most of his senior class, Oak Mountain High School defensive back Chase Schwender didn’t think he would get to play this season due to COVID-19. But when Schwender had the chance to make a play, he made the most of it in the Eagles’ 38-2 win over Chelsea at Heardmont Park on Friday.
Schwender intercepted Chelsea’s Nic Neaves at his own 20-yard line and nearly ran it back 80 yards for a score. He was knocked out of bounds at the 2-yard line with one second left in the first half. After a procedure penalty, Hogan Morton’s 23-yard field goal gave the Class 7A Eagles a 25-0 halftime lead.
“It just came right to me,” Schwender said. “I started to run, my guys blocked for me and we were able to get a field goal out of it. I thought I got in. It was so exciting because, first game, interception and we got a big win.”
The play came after Chelsea had a chance to get something going near the end of the half, taking over just past midfield after a dropped snap on the punt.
“The (third) interception (of the first half) was massive,” Oak Mountain head coach Cris Bell said. “We got a little greedy and tried to hit the home run with about a minute and 30 left (after a 15-minute delay because the lights went out) and had the dropped snap on a punt, Chase comes in and makes a huge play. We were fortunate to have a second to get a field goal, but that was huge right there.”
Teammate Zach Taylor had the first two interceptions of the opening half. The first one came on Chelsea’s second possession deep in Oak Mountain territory and the next one came two possessions later. Both times, the Eagles scored touchdowns after the turnover.
The Class 6A Hornets could not get anything going after that, and had another blunder early in the third quarter when a snap went over Neaves’ head and out of the end zone for a safety. Chelsea got a safety of its own in the fourth quarter on a similar play when the Eagles snapped it over the punter’s head.
“Unfortunately, we just had more negatives than we thought we would going in,” Chelsea head coach Dustin Goodwin said.
Judah Tait rushed for 98 yards on 14 carries, scoring on a 9-yard run on the first possession of the game for the Eagles and a 41-yarder in the second half to make the score 35-0.
Quarterback Evan Smith threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Cade George and Smith scored on a 1-yard run to make it 22-0. The Eagles converted a pair of two-point conversions and got field goals of 23 and 18 yards from Morton.
“When you come in with two offensive line starters out and your backup to one of those starters out, you take what you can get,” Bell said. “We needed every gift they gave us.”
Smith, a third-year starting quarterback as a junior, hit 5 of 9 passes for 83 yards. The Eagles rushed for 194 yards.
“It was good to get out and play a football game,” Bell said. “You’ve got to pray that we get to keep doing it.
“We did much better this year than we did last year against these guys (a 17-0 Oak Mountain win in the season opener). There’s still some things we’ve got to clean up, but we’re making progress.”
Oak Mountain hosts Pelham next week and Chelsea hosts Helena.
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