Senior running back Dustin Moore racked up three touchdowns for Vinemont in his team's 34-0 rout of Cold Springs Thursday night. (Nick Griffin for the Cullman Tribune)
VINEMONT – The Vinemont Eagles hosted the Cold Springs Eagles for senior night on Thursday and senior running back Dustin Moore’s three touchdowns carried Vinemont to a 34-0 victory on a soggy and misty evening.
It didn’t take long for Vinemont to take the lead as Cold Springs went three-and-out on its first possession. Seven plays later, Moore went 55 yards to put Vinemont up 6-0 with 6:40 remaining in the opening quarter. On the ensuing possession, Cold Springs failed to convert on fourth down. Vinemont’s offense picked up right where it left off with a heavy dose of the run, capped off by a 9-yard touchdown run by Dallin Dinkle, extending the Vinemont lead to 14-0 late in the first quarter.
Once again, the Cold Springs offense just couldn’t find any rhythm, failing to convert on fourth down and setting the Vinemont offense up at midfield. Moore scored his second touchdown of the night on a 29-yard run on fourth down to give the home Eagles a 21-0 lead with 7:44 remaining until halftime. Another senior, Cam Carter, gave Vinemont the ball back with an interception, and on the very next play Jack Hill found Teague Whatley over the middle for a 60-yard touchdown pushing the lead to 27-0 with 5:10 to play until halftime. Cold Springs put together a promising drive which got the ball inside the 10-yard line, but time ran out in the half, leaving Vinemont ahead 27-0.
Before the teams left the field for halftime, they participated in an untimed play more important than any other play run during the game. Cold Springs senior Chris Myers made his way onto the field and took the handoff 50-yards to the end zone where he celebrated with both teams, and both sets of bleachers erupted. It was a moment bigger than football, and one that Chris (who has Down syndrome), along with everyone else in the stadium, won’t soon forget.
On the second play of the third quarter, Moore raced 48 yards for his third touchdown of the night to put the Eagles up 34-0. From that point it was time to get the young guys some playing time and neither team was able to find the end zone for the remainder of the game.
Vinemont coach Stephen Robinson said he was extremely excited to send the seniors out in that fashion and was proud of the way he has seen them grow all year. Vinemont finishes the 2018 season at 3-7 and will lose 10 seniors from this team in May. That experience and production will be hard to replace so there will be plenty of opportunities for new faces to step up for his Eagles next fall.
The road loss ends Cold Springs’ season at 4-6, and like Vinemont, they’ll have big shoes to fill next season. Twelve seniors are graduating from this roster in the spring, but the Eagles got a lot of production out of underclassmen this season that will be returning in 2019.
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