Turnovers plague Blue Devils, Andalusia rolls to 41-0 victory

Published 11:00 pm Friday, September 22, 2017

Second-ranked Andalusia took advantage of some miscues by Escambia County as the Bulldogs ran away with a 41-0 region victory over the Blue Devils in Atmore on Friday night.

The Bulldogs scored off of four ECHS turnovers in the first half en route to a 31-0 lead at halftime.

“We just played a good team,” Blue Devils head football coach Rico Jackson said. “We made a ton of turnovers.”

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Jackson said most of the turnovers in the first half came off of routine plays, which wasn’t supposed to happen.

Atmore did a good job of applying pressure on AHS quarterback Ethan Wilson, but the senior South Alabama baseball commit used his arm when it mattered during the first half.

The first turnover came after the ball hit an ECHS player on an Andalusia punt.

From there, Wilson found senior wide receiver Grant Holley for a touchdown pass with 9:41 left in the first. With the PAT by Reese Burkhardt, AHS led 7-0.

Three possessions later, the Blue Devils coughed up the ball again with 5:02 left in the first quarter, and the Bulldogs took advantage as Wilson connected with Holley again for a long pass to set up a 26-yard field goal by Burkhardt with 3:14 left.

On the ensuing punt, Andalusia’s Ashley Odom recovered a fumble in the end zone and the Bulldogs took a healthy 17-0 lead.

In the second quarter, AHS added to its lead on a 3-yard touchdown rush from sophomore running back Caleb Smallwood with 5:19 to go.

After another ECHS fumble, AHS took advantage again as Elijah McClain scored from 20 yards out to go ahead 31-0 with the PAT.

ECHS will picked itself up and get ready for next week’s homecoming game against Hillcrest-Evergreen, while Andalusia hosts rival Opp.