BAY MINETTE — In a battle of new coaches, Baldwin County’s Nate McDaniel got the best of Escambia County’s Royce Young, as the Tigers topped ECHS 42-6 in Bay Minette on Friday night. It was the opening game of the season for both teams.

Playing before a packed crowd at Lyle Underwood Stadium, Baldwin County (1-0) scored two touchdowns in each of the first, third, and fourth quarters to romp past the Blue Devils (0-1).

The Tigers got things going quickly as they punched in two early scoring drives.

They went up 7-0 with 6:11 left in the first quarter, when quarterback Juwon Judge raced 21 yards to cap a five-play, 52-yard drive. Lance Edwards, who connected on all six extra points on the evening, made it 7-0 with the conversion.

After a failed ECHS drive, Baldwin County then went 77 yards on a 10-play march to go up by two scores. Judge’s 18 yard scoring pass to Chris Hooks finished off the drive and the PAT made it 14-0.

After a scoreless second quarter, Baldwin County came right back with two more touchdowns in the third quarter.

A fumbled punt snap gave the Tigers the ball on the ECHS 15 and it took just three plays for Dwayne Koen to cap the short drive with a five yard scoring sprint.

ECHS then came back and got their only points on an eight-play drive. Devante Lee scored the touchdown on a 5-yard pass from Devon Bird.

Baldwin County came right back with Koen’s 70-yard kickoff return to the ECHS 14. Koen then went 7 yards, and R.J. Stevens scored from there.

The final two Tiger touchdowns came on a Judge to Jermaine Williams 16-yard pass with 11:52 left in the contest and a 1-yard Nathan Barnes run with 1:10 remaining.

ECHS remains on the road Friday night, as the Blue Devils travel to face W.S. Neal in East Brewton at 7 p.m. The Blue Devils do not play a home game until Friday, Sept. 12, when they host B.C. Rain.

This article was written by Larry White, GulfCoastNewsToday.com