Photo by Todd Lester
Chelsea-Oak Mountain Football
Oak Mountain's Wyatt Legas (8) in a game between Chelsea and Oak Mountain on Friday, August 19, 2016, at Heardmont Park in Birmingham, Alabama.
Luckily for Oak Mountain, the first two games have done nothing to diminish the Eagles' chances of making a playoff push this fall. With the first two contests of the season being non-region games, they still have all their goals ahead of them.
“The fortunate thing for us is it’s two non-region games. The season starts new next week, and we’ve got to have some great leadership from our kids and our staff has to do a tremendous job coaching this week,” head coach Cris Bell said following last week's game.
A 49-33 loss to Chelsea stung because the Eagles held a two-touchdown lead early and closed to the gap to two points late in the fourth quarter, but the Hornets pulled away. Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa jumped ahead early and won 41-21.
“I was proud of the way we competed. We certainly had opportunities we could have laid down at halftime, especially when they got that score right before halftime, but the kids battled. I thought we got better from Week 1 to Week 2,” Bell said.
Oak Mountain moved the ball better in the second half with Jaylin Gaines finding the end zone twice on runs of 6 and 1 yards. Gaines finished with 111 yards on 16 carries to lead the Eagles, followed by 90 yards from Daniel Salchert.
Huffman is the only new Class 7A, Region 3 opponent this fall, replacing Hewitt-Trussville. The Vikings fell to Parker, 7-0, in their season opener last week.
The two teams have never met on the gridiron, and the Eagles will travel to Viking Stadium for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Friday.
