Armistead's field goal lifts Patriots over rival Vestavia
HOMEWOOD — Down a point to rival Vestavia Hills High with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter, Homewood head coach Ben Berguson prepared his team to attempt a comeback with his backup quarterback.
What happened ended up being crazier than that.
Starter Woods Ray was able to shake off a back and elbow injury from the previous possession and lead his team on a 92-yard drive. It culminated with freshman Whit Armistead’s 20-yard field goal barely sneaking inside the left upright and giving Class 6A No. 9 Homewood a 9-7 lead with 3:12 left, one it would hold onto and defeat Vestavia Hills with after Ben Keene’s 34-yard attempt went wide left with 13 seconds left.
Armistead wasn’t supposed to be in there. Homewood’s starting kicker is J.C. Daniel, but he’s also a starting receiver. He took a short toss on third and goal at the 5-yard line and made it 2 yards before getting popped in the head. He missed an extra point and a field goal earlier, but it was time for the freshman to pick up his teammate.
"I’m thinking, ‘What’s the best thing to do, go ahead and go for it or kick it,'” Berguson said. "The best thing to do at the time was kicking the field goal. I’m proud of Whit for going in and doing that. He’s cool as a cucumber.”
Armistead has been kicking since fourth grade, but had not attempted a kick in a varsity game, kicking last year in middle school. The kick barely made it. Ray estimated by making a hand signal with two fingers spread apart an inch. Vestavia players thought it was no good.
"It was really close,” Armistead said. "I’d like to say if we were at Vestavia, I don’t know how that call would have gone. They probably would have said it didn’t go in. I’ll take it.”
Armistead said no one really said anything before the kick, letting him focus. After the game, he was carried off the field a hero.
"A lot of them said a lot of things I can’t say,” Armistead said. "They were just congratulating me. It was crazy."
For Vestavia (0-2), the frustrating start continued under first-year head coach Sean Calhoun. Before Homewood’s game-winning drive, Vestavia led 7-6 on a 43-yard touchdown pass from Mitchell Towns to Cole Turner in the first quarter. The Rebels drove to the Homewood 5, but a big hit on Jack Davis forced a fumble that the Patriots (2-0) recovered.
"Man if we don’t execute better, we aren’t going to win many games,” Calhoun said. "That starts with me as the head coach. I’ve got to get our team better prepared.”
Vestavia’s final drive started on its 34 with just over three minutes left and ended at the 17 with the missed field goal. The Rebels also had another touchdown pass to Turner called off when Turner was flagged for offensive pass interference.
"We can’t just score one and expect to win a lot of games,” Calhoun said. "What can you say about our defense? Unbelievable effort by our defense. Fantastic. Offense put them in bad spots. Defense was absolutely fantastic.”
Homewood’s first score came on a 3-yard touchdown run from Mondrell Odell, but the extra point missed. Ray completed 15-of-23 passes for 130 yards.
"It’ll humble us for sure,” said Ray, who added 68 rushing yards. "We were really confident beating Hillcrest (last week). You saw Mountain Brook beat them 33-3 (last week) and we thought we would come in here and roll on them, but I think this will humble us as best as it can."
Towns hit 15-of-24 passes for 128 yards with an interception. The Rebels open Class 7A, Region 3 play at Hoover next week and Homewood has a Class 6A non-region game at McAdory.