Eagles rally for wild win over Hillcrest
BIRMINGHAM — If Oak Mountain High School’s football team had a theme song for their 28-27 victory over visiting Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa Friday night, it would have been the old pop classic by Cyndi Lauper, “Time After Time.”
Time after time, the Eagles came back from adversity — be it a Patriots return for a touchdown on the opening kickoff, a two-touchdown deficit going into halftime, or Hillcrest running back Yassir Boyd trying to win the game on a 2-point conversion with 19 seconds to play.
It’s the kind of comeback that gives coaches even more gray hairs. Just ask the Eagles’ boss, Cris Bell.
“Yeah, I got a few more of them tonight,” he said. “But we overcame some of our own issues, and our defense came up with a couple of big plays tonight.”
Patriots return man Cagan Campbell dashed 89 yards with the opening kick to take a quick lead, but the Eagles answered later in the first quarter when quarterback Connor Webb connected with tight end Carson Bobo for a 7-yard touchdown.
Hillcrest then came back to score twice in the second quarter: a dive by Boyd half a yard from the goal line, and then a 22-yard scoring toss from Colby Smelley to Tre Ross. The latter play came with a dose of controversy, as the touchdown was originally disallowed because of an illegal-procedure penalty — the line judge said the Pats had just six men on the line of scrimmage.
Hillcrest coach Sam Adams immediately called a timeout to question the call, and while the teams huddled, the officials did the same. The head linesman said there were seven men on the line, and in the debate, he won out. The penalty flag was picked up and the touchdown counted, giving the visitors a 21-7 lead with just 29 seconds left before intermission.
The Eagles began their march back late in the third quarter, getting good field position thanks to a fair catch interference flag, and Ethan Duncan scored from three yards out with just under three minutes to play in the quarter.
The big turnaround for Oak Mountain came on the first play of the final stanza, when Boyd was headed down the sideline with paydirt in sight. Somehow, Boyd lost control of the ball, and Eagle linebacker Jackson Murphy came up with the ball and dashed 50 yards for the scoop-and-score.
But the Eagles couldn’t tie the score, as the point-after kick — taken from five yards farther out because of a penalty — sailed wide.
After the two sides traded fruitless possessions, Webb engineered a quick drive that featured two long passes to Nathan Jones, both of which he caught while being interfered with. Duncan finished it off with a 1-yard touchdown dive, and the Luke Percer added the 2-point conversion with 2:06 left in the game, and Oak Mountain ahead 28-21.
But that was just enough time for Smelley to mount one last drive for Hillcrest, which finished with his own quarterback sneak for a touchdown. Adams gambled on the conversion and went for two points.
Boyd ran right into the line, and someone from the Eagles held him up. Bell isn’t quite sure who it was, “but I bet it was Jackson Murphy,” he said.
Webb had a stellar night guiding the Eagles passing attack, completing 11 passes in 13 attempts for 156 yards. Jones caught three passes, all in the last quarter, including passes for 33 and 27 yards on the last drive to set up the winning touchdown by Duncan.
Running back Connor Wilson ran 12 times for 62 yards before coming out with what appeared to be a minor injury in the first drive of the second half. His status is unknown. Percer and Duncan split the ground-game duties after Wilson left.
Oak Mountain gets their season off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2014, which is also the last time they beat Hillcrest. The Patriots, who were unbeaten in the 2016 season before falling to Spanish Fort in the second playoff round, are 0-2 after being shut out by Oxford in Week Zero. They host rival Northridge next week, while the Eagles begin region play by hosting Huffman at Heardmont Park.