Spartans, Rebels tangle Friday

The Mountain Brook Spartans, stinging from a second straight close loss, host rival Vestavia Hills on Friday at Spartan Stadium.

The Spartans (1-2, 0-2 Class 7A, Region 3), after winning their opener in thrilling fashion over Huntsville 16-14, dropped identical 21-14 decisions to Class 7A top-ranked Hoover and to surprising Thompson.

The Rebels (2-1, 1-1) took a tough region loss at Hewitt-Trussville after opening with two solid wins.

“You don’t make the number of mistakes that we did and win in this region,” Spartans coach Chris Yeager said after the Thompson loss. “As hard as the region is, it’s very unforgiving on this stage.”

The Spartans were down 14-0 after one quarter, fought back to tie, only to lose in the closing two minutes.

“That’s three games in a row that we’re down 14-3, 14-0,” Yeager said. “We’ve got to come out of the blocks a little quicker, and I think that would solve a lot of problems.”

Quarterback Connor Adair and Sims Herron connected on a pair of touchdown passes for Mountain Brook, the second score in the fourth period to tie the game.

“There’s a lot of football left to play, and we just got to go back and get a little bit better every week, but I think we’re OK,” Yeager said. “I love how hard our kids are playing. We just got to play smart Mountain Brook football.”

Yeager is still sitting on career win No. 99.

Vestavia Hills is led by quarterback Brett Jones and running back Walker Minor and defensive linemen Alex Robin and Clayton Farris.