Will to win: Oak Mountain takes down rival Briarwood for 1-0 start

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Publisher

NORTH SHELBY – With his team up three and rival Briarwood stealing away momentum, Will O’Dell stepped on the field with 6:56 remaining in Oak Mountain’s season opener on Friday, Aug. 13 determined to put his name to the test and will his team to victory.

On a drive that ate up nearly five minutes of time, O’Dell had a 25-yard run, a 15-yard pass to Walker Shook, an 8-yard third-down run and a remarkable 7-yard run on third-and-6 that saw him stretch out and dive for a first down by inches.

Ultimately, that paved the way for a 7-yard touchdown run from Marty Myricks to put the stamp on a 38-28 rivalry win for the Eagles to open the season and snap a two-season losing streak to their rival.

“We wanted it,” O’Dell said after the win. “They beat us two years in a row. It’s my senior year, so I wanted it pretty bad. It was a team effort and it starts up front. I challenged our line, I said, ‘This game is on y’all.’ They came out and put together a good run game and good pass pro, and then let our guys do their things. Sean (Ray) and Marty had standout games. Walker, Jacob (Moore) and Zach (Fitzgerald) all had big catches. It was a team effort that started in the first half and we finished by putting the nail in the coffin on that final drive.”

O’Dell finished the night with 208 yards passing and two touchdown passes on jet sweeps, while adding 194 rushing yards and a touchdown.

“Everybody knows he’s a stud man,” head coach Shane McComb said after the game. “Whenever you have a big, strong, physical quarterback, it gets your team going. That first down he got where he stuck it out, dove and went for it, that type of stuff rallies a team together. If that doesn’t fire up a defense to come out and get a stop, I don’t know what would. When a quarterback puts his neck on the line to win the game, that’s all you can ask for. He’s a heck of a kid, a great player and one of the best I’ve ever coached.”

In addition to O’Dell’s stellar night, the Eagles had a balanced offensive attack, spreading the ball across the field to several players.

Myricks finished with 55 yards and two touchdowns, while Ray added two touchdowns on 34 all-purpose yards. Shook added 75 receiving yards, while Fitzgerald finished with 58 yards and Moore 43 yards.

“It’s big,” McComb said of what the win means for the team. “It’s important for us to start off and enjoy a win. We have a lot to work on. We’re young, but we’ll learn from this game and continue to improve each week. We’re trying to build something and get better every week and each year.

It was a speedy start from both teams that highlighted the first half, as the two teams traded field goals and touchdowns on the first couple of drives of the night.

Oak Mountain started with an opening drive that was capped off by a 38-yard field goal from Josh Renfro to take the early 3-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game, but Briarwood quickly answered.

The Lions converted a big third-and-17 on a screen pass during the ensuing drive, eventually setting up a game-tying field goal to even the score at 3-3 with 5:39 remaining in the opening quarter.

Both teams traded punts on their next respective drives, but that break in the offensive action didn’t last long.

It started when a bad snap on Briarwood’s punt gave Oak Mountain a short field to work with.

Two plays into the drive, the Eagles capitalized on a 5-yard touchdown run from running back Marty Myricks off a direct snap to give Oak Mountain a 10-3 advantage.

The lead was short lived as Briarwood went right down the field and answered on the first play of the second quarter when quarterback Brayden Robertson pitched the ball to Eli Thompson, who threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Britton Wagoner that made it 10-10 with 11:53 left in the half.

From there, however, Oak Mountain took control of the half.

On the ensuing drive, the Eagles converted two third downs and forced an offsides penalty on fourth-and-3 to keep the drive alive.

They capitalized when Sean Ray took a jet sweep around the left side for a 16-yard touchdown and 17-10 advantage.

Oak Mountain then forced a punt and got the ball back with 2:47 remaining in the half at its own 23-yard line.

A Ray 4-yard catch on first down was followed by a 44-yard pass from quarterback Will O’Dell to Zach Fitzgerald.

Three plays later, on third-and-6, O’Dell took off up the middle and fought his way into the end zone for a 24-10 lead with 18 seconds left in the half, giving the Eagles two unanswered scores going into the break.

Briarwood, however, wasn’t going to fold.

The Lions got the exact start they needed to start the second half when John Campbell took the opening kick 85 yards to the house to quickly make it a seven-point game in the first 15 seconds.

Thus continued the back-and-forth battle.

Oak Mountain responded with another strong drive that featured more clutch play, converting a third-and-9 and fourth-and-1 en route to another Ray sweep into the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown.

Back to back fumbles traded possessions for the two teams, giving Briarwood the ball back and leading to a field goal to make it 31-20 with 3:06 to go in the third quarter.

That score held into the fourth quarter, as Oak Mountain missed a field goal, while Briarwood then went three-and-out.

On the ensuing punt, a low snap led to a short punt that the officials determined hit an Oak Mountain player, giving the Lions the break they needed.

Briarwood capitalized in a big way. A play after starting quarterback Charles Dedmon lost his helmet, backup Brayden Robertson threw a deep ball to Dane Whitehead for 25 yards, setting up a 2-yard touchdown run from Brooks Allred, who then punched in the 2-point conversion.

All of a sudden it was 31-28 with 6:56 to play.

That’s when O’Dell and the hot Oak Mountain offense stepped back on the field determined to close out the game.

The Eagles drove down the field for the final score, while the defense then forced a four-and-out on the ensuing drive, capped off by a sack and pressure-forced incompletion.

Briarwood totaled 201 yards passing between Dedmon, Robertson and Thompson, while they only totaled 39 yards on the ground.

With the win, Oak Mountain starts the season 1-0 with a trip to Pelham next week, while Briarwood falls to 0-1 and heads to Homewood to take on an experienced 1-0 Patriots’ team.

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