Oak Mountain's storybook season ends
GADSDEN -- Oak Mountain's Cinderella season turned into a pumpkin Friday night.
The Eagles' red-hot rushing attack ground to a halt on a bitterly cold night at Titans Stadium with a 45-28 loss at the hands of Gadsden City in the quarterfinals of the Class 7A playoffs.
Oak Mountain had pulled off a stunning 60-43 comeback win over James Clemens last week in round one with a powerful ground game. But the Eagles were unable to repeat the magic after digging themselves a 17-0 hole at halftime.
Gabriel Ford rolled up more than 210 combined yards rushing and receiving and scored three touchdowns to lead Gadsden (10-2), which advances to play Hoover next Friday.
Denzel Mooney added two first-half touchdown catches for Gadsden from quarterback Ahmad DeRamus, one on a fake field goal and the second to close out the second quarter.
Oak Mountain head coach Cris Bell said he was "extremely pleased" with his team's 10-2 season, noting that the Eagles achieved far more than was expected of them at the start of the year and especially after being "left for dead" by critics after a loss to Hoover.
Bell said Gadsden "made plays and we didn't. We ran 13 offensive plays in the first half and you can't do that."
"We can't dig ourselves a second hole like that," he said.
The Eagles were unable to get their offense on track in the first half, gaining just one first down and turning the ball over twice on fumbles.
Gadsden might have turned the game into an early rout if not for an Oak Mountain interception deep in Eagles territory and a fourth-down stand on another Titans drive near the goal line.
Oak Mountain got on track in the second half, scoring on a 2-yard run by Harold Shader that was set up by a 38-yard strike from quarterback Warren Shader to Evan Benison.
Oak Mountain closed to within 10 points at 24-14 at the start of the fourth quarter on a second 2-yard touchdown run from Harold Shader.
But Gadsden answered with a 34-yard scoring pass from Damon Williams to Darnell Mooney.
The Eagles drove the field and made it 31-21 on a 6-yard Daniel Salchert run but the Titans put the game away with two Ford touchdown runs of 57 yards and 12 yards.
A 3-yard touchdown run by Salchert with 1:36 left made the final score 45-28.