Eagles falter in loss to Hoover
The Oak Mountain High School football team never found its form on Friday night, as Class 7A No. 2 Hoover won its fourth straight contest in emphatic fashion, a 49-6 win at Heardmont Park.
“What a great effort. What a great job,” said Hoover head coach Josh Niblett. “Any time you run the triple option like they do – and they’re good at it – you have to make sure assignment-wise you do what you’re supposed to do.”
The Bucs (5-1, 4-0 in Class 7A, Region 3) began the scoring with a 46-yard pass from Garrett Farquhar to Kam Ford. Farquhar found the hole in the zone and hit Ford, who sped down the sideline to give Hoover a 7-0 edge.
One of Oak Mountain’s two turnovers came on the first play of the ensuing drive, as Hoover linebacker KJ Vault recovered a mishandled pitch at the Eagle 21-yard line. Four plays later, R.J. Randle scored from 10 yards out to make it 14-0.
The Eagles (2-4, 2-2) responded, as they drove down the field and punctuated their only scoring drive of the night with a well-executed option pass. Ethan Duncan took the pitch from Jackson Kimbrell and found Luke Percer wide open for a 33-yard score.
Randle scored from 56 yards away on Hoover’s next drive, shoving a defender off his back after nearly going down. With the Bucs taking a 21-6 lead late in the first quarter, the rout was on.
“We weren’t ready to play and we got to fix that,” Oak Mountain head coach Cris Bell said. “We’ve still got everything in front of us…We have to regroup.”
Randle touched the ball just three times on the night and scored twice.
Cortez Hall returned a punt 41 yards early in the second quarter, and the Bucs needed just one play to punch it in. Farquhar hit Jimmy Turner for a 27-yard score near the sideline.
Vault came up with his second takeaway on the following possession, intercepting Kimbrell near midfield.
“We were able to get two takeaways from them early, and I thought that set the tone,” Niblett said.
Farquhar threw subsequent touchdown passes to Shedrick Jackson and Hall and finished 9-of-16 for 193 yards and four scores, all to different receivers.
“Knowing that I’ve got a lot of good receivers out there, it puts a lot of confidence in my head,” Farquhar said. “Being able to spread it around really helps. It makes the defense have to worry about a lot of different threats.”
DeShon Moyer scored the final touchdown of the game for Hoover, as the senior back scored from 4 yards out in the fourth quarter.
Daniel Salchert led the Eagles on the ground with 81 yards on 15 carries. Kimbrell rushed 16 times for 62 yards.
Niblett was pleased with Hoover’s ability to punch the ball in the end zone, as settling for field goals after productive drives had been an issue in the first few games this season.
“It’s all about staying in front of the sticks and being positive on first down,” he said.
Hoover hosts Huffman next week in another region bout. Oak Mountain takes to the road to play Tuscaloosa County.