Vestavia Hills quarterback John Paul Head ran for three scores and tossed another as the Class 7A No. 6 Rebels rumbled to a 35-10 victory over Class 6A No. 4 Mountain Brook on Thursday at Spartan Stadium.
Vestavia Hills (1-0) was forced into a three-and-out on the opening possession of the game and allowed the Spartans to take an early 3-0 lead on a 30-yard field goal from Harrison Fell. The Rebels responded with a 10-play, 80-yard drive, capped by a 2-yard touchdown run by Head, and took a 14-3 lead on its next possession on a 29-yard scoring run from Head.
Mountain Brook recovered a fumble on a strip-sack late in the second quarter but managed only three yards before punting back to the Rebels. Vestavia Hills went three-and-out on the subsequent possession, but recovered a muffed punt at the Spartans’ 22-yard line. Tennessee commit Jordan Ross caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Head four plays later to take a 21-3 advantage into the halftime break.
The Spartans drove deep into Vestavia Hills territory to open the third quarter, but eventually turned the ball over on downs. However, Mountain Brook’s Hampton King intercepted a Head pass to set the Spartans up at midfield.
Only three plays later Mountain Brook, returned possession to the Rebels on a Kohen Nelson pick of Spartan quarterback John Cooper. Vestavia Hills drove 59 yards in 10 plays and took a 28-3 lead on Head’s third and final touchdown of the game.
Following a failed fourth-down conversion by the Rebels early in the fourth quarter, Mountain Brook (0-1) finally found the end zone on a 5-yard touchdown run from Stuart Andrews. The celebration was short-lived as Vestavia Hills’ Chase Webb returned the following kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown.
Star(s) of the game: Head. The senior quarterback finished his night 13-of-18 passing for 125 yards with a touchdown and interception, and led the rushing attack with 23 attempts for 118 yards and three scores.
Key sequence: Vestavia Hills scored its only touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to 28-10 with 9:07 remaining, but the Rebels never blinked as Chase Webb returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a score and a 35-10 lead with 8:52 left in the final frame.
By the numbers: 45, the number of passing attempts between two teams known for their rushing acumen. …30, the total number of wins in the series for Vestavia Hills as the Rebels now own a 30-28 record over Mountain Brook. …5, the total number of turnovers in the game.
Stat sheet: Vestavia Hills – William Tonsmeire had 11 carries for 64 yards, followed by Bruce Littleton with 24 yards and Cross Tonsmeire with 15 yards. Keown Richardson brought down five catches for 74 yards and Ross had two receptions for 13 yards and a touchdown, along with a sack. Mountain Brook – Cole Gamble had an extraordinary night on the ground, rushing for 213 yards on 24 attempts, while Andrews finished with nine carries for 33 yards and the lone Spartan touchdown. Cooper was 10-of-27 for 127 yards and an interception and Clark Sanderson and Hudson Young had two receptions each for a combined 61 yards.
Coachspeak: “Mountain Brook is about a quality program, run by as a quality man, as you can find and it’s hard. This offseason getting ready, we probably spent more man hours on this one game than I’ve ever spent. This was a battle of attrition and our pace wore on them a bit. Our guys, collectively as a team, were the tougher team tonight and that’s no disrespect to Mountain Brook. Our numbers and our depth showed up tonight.” -- Vestavia Hills’ Robert Evans
“We’re better than we played tonight, I know we are. I’m glad we played a really good team and a great opponent. I’m thankful for that, not the outcome, but the lessons we’re going to learn from this. We didn’t do anything earth-shattering, we just didn’t execute fundamentals. It was not Mountain Brook football but we’ll get there.” -- Mountain Brook’s Chris Yeager
They said it: “It was tough. We had been preaching for two or three weeks about hydration and staying fresh. Everybody played their butts off. I had to get an I.V. at halftime but we grinded it through.” -- Head
“The win is great but the job is not finished. We can improve a lot more. We had a lot of bad plays and we’ll come back on Monday, watch the film, and see how we can better.” -- Ross
What’s next? Vestavia Hills will host Homewood, while Mountain Brook travels to James Clemens.