Eagles outlast Pelham on late defensive stop
BIRMINGHAM -- Oak Mountain High School coach Cris Bell was already looking toward overtime.
“At one point it seemed neither team was going to stop the other,” the Eagles’ coach said. “If it had gone to overtime, somebody was going to win it by going for two, either making it or stopping it.”
Instead, Bell’s defense made the plays in the final stanza to salt away a 28-21 Oak Mountain victory over Pelham on Friday night at Heardmont Park.
Neither team could escape the other as each displayed a ground-and-pound running attack and enough big plays to fill a treasure chest. But Oak Mountain defensive lineman Jacob Katona made the two stops that the home team needed.
With Pelham’s Gabe Gamble struggling for extra yardage in the red zone, Katona stripped the ball and recovered the fumble to start the Eagles on a drive that would end with Cade George’s run around left end, which he capped off with a leap into the end zone.
Later, with the Panthers again driving down the field, Katona came up big again, getting a mitt on the ball to knock it away from Panthers’ quarterback William Lankford.
“He’s pretty tough, he’s real quick,” the senior said of Lankford. “I came up and I saw him come up in the pocket and that’s when I got him.”
Cam Atkinson made the recovery that let Oak Mountain run out the clock for the victory.
“At the end of the day,” Katona said, “I thought we needed to make a play for our team so we could win the game.”
It was just the second win for Bell over Pelham since he’s been the head man at Oak Mountain, with his first victory coming just a season ago.
The back and forth nature of the game had the Eagles running on fumes.
“Our kids were tired so we took the Scripture from Gideon where you’ve got to fight weary,” Bell said. “Those last two drives defensively, that’s all we were telling them. Fight weary. Fight weary. Fortunately, we had a couple of guys come up and make plays that were huge.”
Pelham coach Tom Causey said both teams played to the last whistle.
“It was a really good high school football game,” he said. “I’m really proud of our guys. We’ll bounce back. We’ve got high character kids. They’ll bounce back next week. I have no doubt.”
Oak Mountain improved to 2-0 while Pelham fell to 1-1.
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