By Roger Steele

The Alexander City Outlook

 

DADEVILLE — The Dadeville Tigers produced a dominating 46-8 region win against an outmanned Dallas County Hornet squad with aggressive and consistent play on both sides of the ball.

“I was worried about our players attitude when we started our preparations for the game earlier this week,” said Dadeville head coach Richard White. “But, we practiced well all week and our guys accepted the challenge and came out here tonight and took care of business in the first half on both sides of the ball.”

On offense, the Tigers (6-0, 4-0) moved the ball at will against the Dallas County defense, chalking up 344 total yards for the game. Most of this yardage came in the first half, with Tiger senior quarterback Kaleb Beck leading the way with 156 yards and two touchdowns through the air and chipping in another 13 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Darius Miller contributed three rushing touchdowns of his own, all in the first half.

On defense, Dadeville smothered the Hornet offense, only allowing three first downs for the entire game, the first one coming with just 6:33 to go in the fourth quarter.

Dallas County produced a negative seven yards for the entire contest, only managing to generate their first positive yardage play at the 8:26 mark in the second quarter. Until that play, Dadeville’s swarming defense manhandled the Hornets on every down.

“Our defense came out tonight and played well,” said White. “They did everything we asked them to do and we also got to play a lot of players on both sides of the ball, which is a good thing this time of the season.”

The Tigers started the game with six consecutive touchdown drives in the first half. Beck capped off three of these drives with a 1-yard keeper up the middle for the first score of the game and followed that up with two touchdown passes, a 12-yarder to senior receiver Terry Toler and a 45-yard strike to sophomore Michael Miller.

The other three drives were finished off by Darius Miller, who rushed for a meager 28 yards for the game, but pushed the ball into the end zone on touchdown runs of eight, six and two yards. By the time Miller scored his final touchdown of the night with 5:32 to go in the first half, the score was already 39-0 and the game was essentially over.

Dadeville’s first string sat out the entire second half as coach White decided to empty the benches and burn the clock by running the ball. Sophomore Daquon Sheeley led all rushers in the second half with 34 yards. Freshman DJ Pearson also saw action and chipped in 27 yards on the ground.

The final score for the Tigers came when Jamal Crayton scored on a 25-yard run with 7:03 in the third quarter. Now leading 46-0, the Tigers were on cruise control.

The Hornets did manage to put together a touchdown drive against Dadeville’s second and third string defense late in the game with an 8-play, 49-yard drive that ended when quarterback Blake Byrd scored on an 8-yard keeper. On the following 2-point play, Byrd found receiver Dylan Hand in the end zone and salvaged some respect in a 46-8 loss.

“We tried to burn a lot of clock in the second half of the game by running the ball on every down,” said White. “We don’t like to embarrass anyone and we’re glad so many of our players got to play.”

Dadeville will continue region play next week when they travel to Beulah to face the Bobcats.