Huskies' comeback bid falls short
TRUSSVILLE - With his team’s playoff chances on the line, Vestavia Hills High School senior cornerback Sam Willoughby made the play of his career.
Willoughby zoned in on a pass from Jackson Holland, intercepting the Hewitt-Trussville quarterback with less than a minute left at his own 10-yard line to preserve the Rebels’ 19-14 Class 7A, Region 3 road win.
Vestavia Hills improved to 5-1, 3-1 in region play and bounced back from a 14-7 loss to Mountain Brook two weeks ago. Hewitt-Trussville dropped its third straight region game and is now 4-3, 1-3, but has tough games against Mountain Brook and Thompson remaining.
Willoughby’s only other interception came in a spring game, he said. The defense was a pattern match, where the defender matches a receiver in his zone. Willoughby read it right, ran with the ball some, then fell to the ground before tossing the ball in the air.
It didn't matter that the team’s celebration earned a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
“We called a play we’ve been working on all week,” Willoughby said. “My teammates did a great job executing, and I just made a play on the ball.”
It looked like a comeback for the Huskies, originally down 19-7 with seven minutes left, was in the cards. On the previous drive, Cade Ott Carruth hit Dazalin Worsham on a 31-yard touchdown pass. After a stop, Carruth took the Huskies to the Vestavia Hills 28 but had to leave the game after injuring his shoulder on a pass that went for a 14-yard gain to Matt Miller.
Holland came in and ran for three yards to the 25 but threw an interception on the next play.
The two rotated throughout the game, as Carruth was coming off an injury. It was supposed to be his drive down the field.
“I think we were about to go win the game,” Huskies coach Josh Floyd said. “We needed it really bad. I hate it for our kids. I’m proud of them. They played their tails off. I thought our defense played really, really well, but we’ve got to keep learning and keep getting better.”
Carruth finished 15-of-20 for 142 yards and two touchdowns, also hitting Miller with an 8-yard scoring strike on the final play of the first half to give Hewitt-Trussville a 7-5 halftime lead. The Huskies were also without their starting center because of injury, and Carruth mishandled a high snap in the end zone and had to fall on it for a safety in the second quarter.
That was set up by a 55-yard punt from the Rebels’ Conner Knighten down to the 3.
Vestavia Hills took over in the second half, scoring two touchdowns. Peyton Walraven hauled in a 40-yard pass from Eli Sawyer to give his team a 12-7 lead, and Sawyer scored on a 3-yard run early in the fourth quarter to make it 19-7.
Walraven dropped a pass on a similar play on the drive before.
“I came back and told Eli that I’m going to make it for him next time,” Walraven said. “We went right back to it and it worked. Great throw by Eli and great blocking.”
Landon Neese paced the Rebels on the ground, rushing for 74 yards. Pierce Hanna had 72 yards on the ground.
“Our defense played great,” Rebels head coach Buddy Anderson said. “We had a few mistakes, but basically they played great. We shot ourselves in the foot on offense, but came back in the second half and made some plays.”
The Huskies are at Mountain Brook next week, and Vestavia Hills hosts Thompson.
Click here to purchase photos from the game.