Bucs defense shines in win over Oak Mountain
HOOVER — That was classic Hoover High School football.
The fourth-ranked Bucs stifled and stymied visiting Oak Mountain High School, running their way to a 37-7 win at the Hoover Met on Friday night.
Sophomore quarterback Evan Reeder looked anything but a young guy, completing 14-of-22 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns. He was intercepted once by the Eagles’ Juston Taylor. R.J. Hamilton was the Bucs' outside weapon, hauling in five passes for 69 yards and two scores. Jamari Buye caught three balls for 33 yards and a score.
The story of the night, though, was the Bucs’ suffocating defense and opportunistic special teams unit. Buye returned a punt 73 yards for a score that was called back due to penalty. Hoover (4-1, 2-1 Class 7A, Region 3) recovered a fumble on special teams and blocked a punt that Seth Parker returned for a touchdown.
Jacob Johnson also recovered a fumble on a kickoff return.
“In high school football I think that’s something you’ve got to really spend some time on,” Hoover head coach Josh Niblett said of special teams. “We don’t call it special teams here. We call it ‘wefense.’ It’s everybody. It’s a ‘we’ deal.”
The Bucs turned a recovered punt into the first points of the game two plays later, when Reeder hit Buye for a 23-yard score on the first play of the second quarter. On Oak Mountain’s ensuing possession, its punt attempt was blocked and returned 15 yards by Parker to give Hoover a 14-0 lead. The Eagles (1-3, 0-3) fumbled the kickoff, which was recovered by Johnson. Reeder found Hamilton on the next play to go up 21-0.
After Taylor intercepted Reeder on Hoover’s next possession, Oak Mountain stalled, and Judah Tait was brought down in the end zone for a safety. Hoover forced Oak Mountain into seven negative plays and held the Eagles to 69 yards rushing.
“Playing disciplined, playing fundamentally sound, doing the little things right will always allow you to have a chance to be where you want to be in the game,” Niblett said.
The Hoover offense went 75 yards in seven plays on its first drive of the second half, punctuated by Reeder’s 30-yard touchdown to Hamilton. Early in the fourth quarter, Anthony Hayes bounced outside for a 10-yard scoring run to put the Bucs up 37-0.
Oak Mountain got its only score when Evan Smith found Cade George for a 99-yard touchdown with 8:00 to play. The Eagles were held to 168 total yards in the game, more than half of which came on the touchdown.
“I can’t say enough about our defense,” Niblett said. “Our guys did a really good job on first down.”
Smith finished 1-of-13 for 99 yards. Jonathan Bennett gained 64 yards on 15 carries for the Eagles.
“We challenged our guys at halftime to finish drives, and I thought we put together some drives, and we were able to get some scores,” Niblett said. “Defense did a good job of getting off the field.”
Oak Mountain steps out of region play next week to host Pelham. Hoover has a bye before traveling to Tuscaloosa County on Oct. 3.
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