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It’s a fundamental football truth: if you give the opposition too many chances to score, they are going to score.
Mountain Brook fumbled three times in the second half, leading to thee Vestavia Hills touchdowns in a 37-7 loss to the visiting Rebels in a Class 7A, Region 3 game.
The Spartans (1-3, 0-3), despite struggling in the first half, trailed just 16-7 as they opened the second half with the ball. But on two consecutive possessions, Vestavia Hills (3-1, 2-1) forced fumbles and produced touchdowns.
“I’ve never been in one of these games where the turnover ratio hasn’t been key and when it rained it just poured, that’s the way it was,” said Mountain Brook coach Chris Yeager, whose team lost the turnover battle 4-0.
After Mountain Brook lost the ball on its first drive of the second half, Vestavia Hills quarterback Brett Jones connected with Remington Patterson for a 43-yard touchdown pass.
The Rebels fumbled on the next drive and Levi Wiggins returned it 41 yards to give Vestavia Hills a 30-7 lead with 7:44 left in the third quarter.
Reid Adams had a 48-yard fumble return for a score in the fourth quarter for Vestavia Hills.
“They were ready and they played a great game,” Yeager said. “They played hard and played tough. We turned the ball over, made a lot of mistakes, made too many mistakes. We probably made more mistakes in this game than we’ve made in the whole season. We just have to work and correct them.”
Running back Harrison Pyburn rushed 20 times for 78 yards and also had two receptions for 60 yard to lead the Spartans on offense. Quarterback Connor Adair completed eight of 16 passes for 141 yards and a touchdown.
Vestavia Hills quarterback Brett Jones was efficient in running the Rebels offense. The senior used the short game to complete 10 of 11 passes for 142 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
“That was our game plan tonight,” Jones said. “We watched film and we saw that we could do it and we did it.”
The Rebels used 15 plays to cover 80 yards and eat up 7 minutes, 35 seconds of the clock on the opening drive of the game to take a 7-0 lead. Thirteen of those plays were run but Vestavia hit paydirt on a 7-yard reception by Nolan Turner.
Vestavia made it 14-0 on the first play of the second quarter when Walker Minor broke through the middle of the line for a 9-yard touchdown run.
The lead jumped to 16-0 with a high snap on a Spartans punt that sailed out of the end zone, but Mountain Brook used eight plays to cover 80 yards after a Vestavia Hills missed field goal. After five consecutive runs by Pyburn, Adair connected on three straight passes, the last being a 10-yard scoring toss to Sims Herron with 16.9 seconds left in the first half.
“The big thing to me is that we still improve,” Yeager said. “This isn’t the first time I’ve been here, you still have to focus on getting better fundamentally. You just have to go back in and work on the fundamentals, that’s what high school football is all about. And we will, and they will respond.”
