Without Smith, Eagles fall to Hewitt
BIRMINGHAM — In a crucial battle for postseason position, Class 7A eighth-ranked Hewitt-Trussville High School handled No. 10 Oak Mountain 28-7 on Friday night at Heardmont Park.
Senior wideout Omari Kelly recorded 154 receiving yards and three scores and his Huskies held the home team to 78 total yards of offense, as they rounded out regular season play with a convincing win.
The road victory earns Hewitt-Trussville (8-2, 5-2 in region) the No. 3 playoff seed coming out of Region 3, matching the Huskies with Bob Jones in the first round in two weeks, while Oak Mountain (6-3) visits Region 4 champion James Clements.
The Eagles struggled on Friday night with starting quarterback Evan Smith sidelined due to injury. The senior QB, the Starnes Media All-South Metro Offensive Player of the Year in 2020, was held out after suffering an injury during last week’s loss to top-ranked Thompson. The Smith-less Eagles finished with negative rushing yards and nine three-and-out drives in the region finale.
“Evan is a great player,” said Hewitt-Trussville head coach Josh Floyd. “I’m sure he’ll come back in the playoffs for them and I think they’re a real threat in the postseason because of him.”
Despite the struggles, Oak Mountain did strike first on an early touchdown pass from freshman Will O’Dell to sophomore Jackson Blackwell. The duo hooked up on the first drive, which started inside the Hewitt 20-yard line after a blocked punt. Blackwell slipped free up the seam for a 21-yard score with 11:02 remaining in the first quarter.
From there, the visiting Huskies would go on a 28-0 run behind a two-quarterback system.
Hewitt evened things up on its first possession of the second quarter when sophomore quarterback Peyton Floyd converted a fourth-and-short with a play-action dump down the right side. His conversion went 19 yards to senior Jordan McCants and evened things up at 7-7 with 8:33 remaining in the first half.
The Huskies would find the end zone twice more to lasso a 21-7 halftime advantage, as Auburn pledge Kelly took turns hauling in TD grabs from Floyd and senior Cade Carruth. Those completions covered 83 and 36 yards, respectively.
“Cade has been out the last few weeks and I think Peyton has done a really good job, but we wanted to get Cade out there to get the rust off a little bit before the playoffs,” said Floyd. “That was the plan going in: to get them both reps.”
Carruth answered Floyd’s 83-yard strike with a gutsy toss, absorbing a hard hit in the pocket to drop a high-hanger into the end zone where Kelly cradled it in for the final score of the half.
The Auburn pledge would complete the hat trick with another touchdown catch late in the third quarter when Carruth rolled right and found him streaking across the end zone. That 25-yarder ended the scoring.
Hewitt has won six straight in the series.
Hewitt-Trussville has wrapped up its regular season slate and takes its open date next week ahead of the playoffs. Oak Mountain hosts Clay-Chalkville next Thursday to wrap up the regular season.