Escambia County has won its crowd.

Even though the Blue Devils lost 28-14 to Flomaton on their homecoming last week, the crowd — many visitors from out of town and fans alike — could be heard cheering for their hometown team.

The game was a lot closer than the advertised score. Flomaton led 15-6 at halftime, and ECHS came back to within one in the second half.

Many of Atmore’s touchdowns were called back due to penalties, which could’ve altered the game for the home team.

Even head football coach Rico Jackson, visibly upset after the loss, said as much during his post-game interview. The interview lasted less than 1 minute.

“The kids played hard,” Jackson said. “It was just a lot to overcome. I think we had 20-25 penalties. They had two.

“Sometimes you just get stuck with the wrong end of the stick,” he said.

But even though ECHS lost, I believe that the Blue Devils won the respect of a lot of their fans.

Take what Flomaton head football coach Doug Vickery said about the Blue Devils after his Class 3A team improved to 5-0 on the season.

“They’ve got so many athletes,” Vickery said. “You’ve got a scheme to be able to tackle them. Hats off to them. Coach Jackson, what he’s done, is remarkable. They’ll win some games this year.”

And they’ll win some more games this year.

ECHS (3-2, 2-1 in Class 4A, Region 1) visits Clarke County (1-4) this week in region action, and then follows the game up at Andalusia (3-3, 1-2), also a region contest.

Yes, the two-touchdown loss is a hard pill to swallow, but the Blue Devils have the opportunity to finish out the season on a strong note.

Heck, maybe a loss will help propel Atmore to another level on the gridiron.

At least the Blue Devils will have support behind them.