Eagles run away from Gadsden City

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GADSDEN – The ground game was working, so the Oak Mountain High School football team never went away from it.

The Eagles piled up 362 rushing yards in a 38-23 win over Gadsden City on Friday night at Titan Stadium in the Class 7A, Region 3 opener for both squads.

“I really like the way we played offensively,” Oak Mountain head coach Cris Bell said following the game. “We controlled the ball…I thought we did a good job blocking on the perimeter and the guys on the inside did a good job.”

The ground assault was carried out primarily by Judah Tait, who averaged 5 yards per carry on the evening. He carried the ball 32 times for 160 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

“That was big. He was a workhorse,” Bell said.

Tait scored on an 8-yard run to open the game’s scoring and punched another in the end zone from 6 yards out in the second quarter to allow Oak Mountain to retake the lead.

Also accumulating big yardage on the ground was quarterback Evan Smith, who went for 93 yards on 11 carries, with two touchdowns as well. Cade George added 74 yards and Trey Vassell racked up 37 yards.

Smith, the third-year starting quarterback, completed just 2-of-6 passes for 67 yards, but one went for a 28-yard score to Noah Young late in the first quarter. Smith’s other completion was a 39-yarder to Tyler Do-Bui. Despite the nondescript stat line, Bell is growing more impressed by his signal caller’s maturation.

“Evan played the position really well,” he said. “He’s starting to get to the point he can make checks at the line of scrimmage. He has started to just understand what we’re trying to do and has a great feel for the offense.”

The teams exchanged the lead multiple times in the first half. Brady Troup’s 1-yard run gave Gadsden City a 7-6 edge, before Smith’s pass to Young made it 13-7. Ra’Tavious Hicks scored on a 55-yard run to give the Titans a 14-13 edge, but Tait and Smith scored touchdowns to make it 28-14 at the break.

There was perhaps no greater example of Oak Mountain’s success on the ground as the Eagles’ opening possession of the second half. Holding a 28-14 lead, Oak Mountain took the ball to begin the third quarter and marched 74 yards in 15 plays, chewing up nearly seven minutes of the game clock. The drive culminated in Hogan Morton’s 24-yard field goal to give the Eagles a 31-14 lead.

Smith scored his second rushing touchdown early in the fourth quarter to make it 38-17. Gadsden City scored a late touchdown to cut the deficit.

Oak Mountain’s leading tacklers came from the secondary, as Jimmy Harris had six tackles and Chase Schwender contributed four. Jacob Katona picked up a sack on the evening as well.

“I like the way our defense played in the second half,” Bell said.

Oak Mountain has earned its third straight win to start the season for the first time since 2017 and is now 1-0 in the challenging Class 7A, Region 3. Next week, the Eagles host Vestavia Hills, which fell to Hoover on Friday.

“It’s a whole lot better than being 0-3, 0-1,” Bell said. “We’re certainly pleased to be here and I’m not surprised, but we can’t become complacent. We’ve got a lot of room to continue to improve.”