Penalties costly in Phil Campbell’s narrow 22-16 loss at Vinemont

The Phil Campbell High School varsity football team came up just short in its Class 3A Region 5 opener, falling 22-16 on the road at Vinemont on Friday night. The defeat dropped the Bobcats to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in region action.

A defensive battle throughout, the game was scoreless at the halftime break. The deadlock was first broken by Phil Campbell in the second half, but it was ultimately the hosts who found the final, go-ahead score to win the ballgame.

“It was a good, intense game,” third-year Phil Campbell head coach Jacob Hamilton said. “It was physical. (Vinemont) studied well for us. And I don’t think that we underestimated them; we played very hard considering the circumstances, we just couldn’t capitalize on a lot of things in the red zone.

“I thought we had a great game defensively. I was really proud of our defensive effort,” he added. “Offensively, watching the film, there’s so much that we could’ve capitalized on that we didn’t and penalties killed us.”

Hamilton said he was frustrated by a lot of the penalties, some of which he disagreed with but many of them costly. The Bobcats ended up with 11 penalties for 89 yards during the game.

“We had a touchdown called back in the first half because of a holding call that I don’t know if I agreed with,” Hamilton said.

“We were able to move the ball and we would drive it, but it’s just when we got to the redzone penalties would kill us. We’d have to go for it on fourth down and couldn’t convert,” he added.

In spite of the penalties, it was Phil Campbell that opened up the scoring early in the third quarter. A touchdown run of 13 yards by Braxton Downey made it 6-0, Bobcats, before quarterback Hayston Scott’s completion to Hagen Raper on the two-point try made it 8-0.

Vinemont responded with a touchdown run of its own later in the third to make it 8-6, but PCHS was able to make it a two-score game after another touchdown run by Dempsey and another successful two-point attempt gave the Bobcats a 16-6 lead.

But it was on the ensuing kickoff that things took a turn. Phil Campbell’s kickoff to Vinemont was returned all the way, and this time the Eagles’ two-point conversion was good, making it a 16-14 game with the fourth quarter looming.

“That was a huge momentum shift for them,” Hamilton said of Vinemont’s special teams score.

A few plays later, after regaining possession, Phil Campbell turned the ball over on an interception. The hosts took advantage, scoring the go-ahead rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter and converting on the two-pointer to make it 22-16, Vinemont.

Phil Campbell wasn’t out of it, though. The Bobcats got the ball back with time to march down the field and tie or recapture the lead. Unfortunately for PCHS, penalties once again came back to bite. The visitors had several penalties on the final drive, including back-to-back false starts in the last sequence.
“We were driving down the field and then all of a sudden we have false starts that I’m not seeing; and linemen downfield consecutively when we have passes and are trying to score in the redzone, and I’m just not seeing that,” Hamilton said.

The penalty setbacks helped keep the Bobcats out of the endzone and Vinemont retained its six-point advantage at the final whistle.

“Congratulations to Vinemont (on the win), but it was very frustrating,” Hamilton added.

Despite the loss, Hamilton said he was proud of how his team played and the effort his players showed.

“We’ve got some really good kids. They play hard and they fight to the end,” he said.

On offense, the quarterback Scott finished with 17 completions on 29 attempts for 175 yards. His top outlet for the evening was receiver Austin Elliott, who had five catches for 78 yards. In the ground game, Downey led the way with 11 carries for 64 yards and two touchdowns while Scott had 10 rushes for 57 yards.

Defensively, the Bobcats got standout performances from Cody Snead and Ethan Hallman, both finishing with 14 total tackles. Eleven of Snead’s 14 tackles were solo and he also recorded a sack.

Reflecting on the outcome of the game, Hamilton said there is still plenty of season left. The Bobcats will get to work on fixing mistakes as focus shifts to their next opponent, region foe Oakman.

“We’re going to come back next week and luckily we get to come back to home,” he said. “We’ve got eight more games left so we’re going to focus on that, focus on ourselves, get back to fundamentals and clean things up.”

Phil Campbell–Oakman is set to kickoff at Parrish Stadium at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 12.