O’Dell, Fitzgerald combine for big offensive night, Oak Mountain improves to 2-0

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Publisher

PELHAM – There was no letdown for Oak Mountain senior quarterback Will O’Dell on Friday, Aug. 30, as he followed up his 402-yard season debut a week ago with his second straight 400-plus yard performance to start the 2024 football season.

O’Dell not only matched his week-one effort, but put together a 472-yard night to better his opening-night game en route to leading the Eagles to a 38-20 victory over county foe Pelham for a 2-0 start to the season.

With the win, Oak Mountain has already doubled its win total from last season through two weeks of the season and now gears up for region play.

“There’s never a bad victory,” head coach Shane McComb said. “I told the kids to enjoy it. It’s never bad to get a victory. You have to enjoy every win you can get.”

O’Dell finished the night with 297 passing yards on 12-of-18 passing with two touchdowns, while he reeled off an additional 175 rushing yards on 13 carries with two additional touchdowns.

Equally as impressive were the performances of Zach Fitzgerald and Jacob Moore, who both went over 100 yards receiving. Fitzgerald was on the receiving end of a 53-yard touchdown and an 80-yard touchdown pass from O’Dell to total 167 yards and two touchdowns in the winning effort, while Moore finished with 109 yards on five receptions.

The dynamic offensive attack of the Eagles was part of a frantic start to the game that saw 27 points scored between the two teams in the first six minutes of action, including a strong start from the connection of O’Dell to Fitzgerald.

After the Eagles forced a quick three-and-out defensively, it took just a few seconds for them to grab the lead when O’Dell hit Fitzgerald for a 53-yard touchdown pass and a quick 7-0 advantage 1:40 into the game.

Oak Mountain got the ball right back after two kicks out of bounds eventually ended with an onside kick on the third attempt that the Eagles recovered.

Pelham, however, forced a fumble of its own shortly after to continue the frenzied start.

The Panthers couldn’t capitalize, as Oak Mountain got the ball back four plays later with another fumble recovery. One play after, Mason Mitchell busted around the right side of the line for a 25-yard touchdown run.

Trailing 14-0, Pelham’s offense got in on the action on the ensuing drive when Kalib Porter took the very first play of the ensuing drive 60 yards for a touchdown that made it 14-6 after a missed PAT.

With 7:08 left in the quarter, it took less than two minutes for the next score to be added when O’Dell connected with Fitzgerald once again, this time for a lengthy 80-yard touchdown to make it 21-6 with 5:50 to play in the half.

The two teams finally settled in after that, as the scoring became less frequent, but the penalty battle ensued.

Penalties became the story of the rest of the half, slowing the game.

Eventually, Oak Mountain was able to end the half with two more scores thanks to a 38-yard field goal from Josh Renfro and a 65-yard touchdown run from O’Dell, who made three defenders miss on his way to the end zone and a 31-6 lead.

The Eagles were also inside the 5-yard line before their field goal and finished the half with O’Dell sprinting 37 yards toward the end zone before being tackled just shy of the end zone at the 3-yard line.

Ultimately, McComb nor O’Dell were overly pleased with the first half after a sloppy 15 penalties and missed assignments prevented a larger lead.

“That’s the most I’ve ever gotten on a team at halftime,” he said. “That’s the sloppiest performance I’ve ever seen. We had 15 penalties, a couple of busted coverages, had multiple guys running wrong routes and selfish penalties. I think tonight showed them we need to have a better week of practice. O’Dell is doing a good job. He is a good leader. He saw some of the sloppiness at halftime and got on them after I did.”

That focus from the senior leader carried into the second half, as he quickly added a 27-yard rushing touchdown shortly after another long pass play to Fitzgerald.

That ultimately put the Eagles on top 38-6 with a comfortable lead with 4:55 left in the third after a nearly seven-minute drive.

Pelham went on to tack on two late scores down the stretch with another rushing touchdown from Porter and a final short run three minutes to play.

In addition to O’Dell and the two receivers, Mitchell finished with 63 yards and his lone touchdown on 13 carries.

Porter led Pelham’s offense with 86 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

Oak Mountain will now host 2-0 Prattville to open region play next week.

“We have to get our heads right and focus,” McComb said. “We know we can be a very good football team, but we know in the region, we are going to play teams that are probably bigger and faster than us. So we have to execute perfectly, play as a team, fly around. We need to play sound assignment football and be good at what we do. We need a good week of practice so we can be better at what we do than they are at what they do.”

Pelham will welcome Chelsea, who improved to 2-0 for the first time since 2016 in week two with a 15-14 win over Wetumpka.

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