EAST BREWTON — Escambia County’s Blue Devils had a tough time stopping the W.S. Neal Eagles’ running game Friday night, as the Eagles came away with a 27-6 victory.

ECHS (0-2) fell behind 13-0 at halftime, but scored on its opening drive of the second half to cut the lead to 13-6. With 9:58 left in the third quarter, Gaetyn Thames scored on a 23-yard touchdown run but the two-point conversion was no good.

The Blue Devils trailed 21-6 after three quarters, but it appeared like ECHS might mount a comeback. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Thames fielded a punt and appeared to break away for a 92-yard touchdown return, but the touchdown was nullified by a clipping penalty.

The Blue Devils instead got the ball on their own 15, and went three-and-out from there.

“We had too many penalties tonight,” ECHS coach Royce Young said. “You have got to have discipline, and we didn’t have enough of it.”
W.S. Neal (2-0) scored its first touchdown with 2:46 left in the first quarter, when Malcolm Hawthorne completed a 10-yard pass to Devontaye Taylor. Taylor added the extra point.

The Eagles’ increased their lead with 7:05 left in the second quarter, on a 1-yard touchdown run by Quenton Samuel. The extra point was blocked.

W.S. Neal added two touchdowns in the second half — a 1-yard run by Hawthorne with 4:55 left in the third quarter, and a 6-yard run by Dakota Graves with 7:16 left in the game.

After the game, W.S. Neal coach Doug Hoehn said he was impressed by the Blue Devils’ effort.

“I thought the Atmore kids played very hard,” he said. “I think [Coach Young] is doing a very good job.”

For more on this story, see the Wednesday, Sept. 3, edition of The Atmore Advance.