By Andrew Garner

Editor/The Atmore Advance

Autauga Academy put together a good game plan for the second half and outscored Escambia Academy 22-0 en route to a 28-18 victory tonight at Bachelor Field.

“We didn’t execute very well in the second half,” Cougars head football coach Hugh Fountain said. “Give them credit. They outplayed us in the second half. We had some good moments in the second half, but I think one of the biggest keys was third down. We lost the third downs, and they’re critical to us.

“Offensively, we didn’t win them and they didn’t win them,” he said.

Down 18-6 to start the third quarter, the Generals marched 55 yards down the field for a momentum-changing touchdown.

“We knew they were going to try to do that,” Fountain said of the touchdown. “We knew that going into the second half. We told them at halftime that was going to be the turning point in the game. We came out and didn’t prevent that from happening.”

AA took its first lead of the game with 2:04 left in the third quarter when the Generals scored on a 57-yarder off the right end to make it 21-18.

AA converted two big third downs in the fourth quarter that helped the Generals tack on another TD with 2 minutes left in the game.

Escambia’s Kris Brown, who had a stellar night, wracking up 213 yards on 23 carries and scored three touchdowns, couldn’t get much going in the second half, despite some good runs.

Brown scored on a 1-yard rush with 9:18 left in the first quarter, and after a fumble recovery, added his second TD more than a minute later to give the Cougars (0-2) a 12-0 lead.

The Generals cut it to six with 5:12 left in the first on a 1-yard rush with 5:12 left.

Brown showed his speed and athleticism on his third touchdown when he ran from side to side for a 89-yarder with 3:29 to go in the first half.

“Brown had a good game for us, but the team has to pay good to win ball games,” Fountain said. “Give them credit. Michael Sims did a good job with his team.”

EA visits Lancaster Academy next week.