Ellwood shut out at home against Billingsley in region game
Published 12:10 am Friday, October 12, 2012
Ellwood’s Marquis Gullet (7) is corralled by a Billingsley defender during Thursday’s game at Memorial Stadium. While Ellwood forced three turnovers on defense, it turned the ball over four times on offense and was shutout in the crucial region game. -- Robert Hudson
Only one touchdown was scored on Thursday night, but that’s all that was needed to win, as the Billingsley Bears defeated the Ellwood Christian Academy Eagles 6-0 at Memorial Stadium.
Mike Stokes, head football coach of Ellwood (3-4, 2-3 Class 1A-Region 3), said the Eagles got great play from their defense, which forced three turnovers on the night, but just couldn’t get anything going offensively.
“When you’ve got a young offensive line and stuff like we have, it’s always going to come into play,” Stokes said. “That’s what happened, it just came into play. We couldn’t move the ball. Our defense played good, as usual, but we just couldn’t score.”
The Bears (4-3, 3-2 Class 1A-Region 3) scored the game’s only points on the first drive of the game, as running back Terrance Nolen capped off a 65-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run up the middle with 7:00 left in the opening quarter to make it 6-0 after a failed 2-point conversion attempt.
The Eagles’ offense turned the ball over four times, including two fumbles and two interceptions.
Ellwood was hurt by mistakes all night, including dropped passes, sacks, and especially penalties, as they had 30 yards worth of errors mostly on offsides calls.
The Bears also held the Eagles outside of the red zone the entire night.
Ellwood had one more shot to score in the game with 2:38 left at its own 28-yard line, but quarterback Jalen Furlow’s first pass was dropped by a receiver, and Furlow was sacked on the next play before having his pass picked off by Billingsley’s Rashaud Caver the following play with 48 seconds left in the game.
The loss will hurt the Eagles’ playoff chances with just two region games left in the season and Ellwood also falls under .500 for the first time this season.
The Eagles will have a chance to bounce back next week when they’ll face Sunshine at Memorial Stadium on Friday.
The Eagles will have two more region games to try and secure one of Class 1A Region 3’s four playoff slots, as they have games against Sunshine and Akron left before facing Selma to close the season.
