Bulldogs fall to Indians 41-13; drop to 0-2

By Staff
Zonya Ponder, Enquirer Correspondent
CAPSHAW – "I thought we would be coming out of this with a loss, but we didn't and we fought hard for every point." said East Limestone Indians head coach Jeff Pugh, whose team swept by the Priceville Bulldogs on Friday evening at Cavnar Stadium with a score of 41-13.
After coming off a hard loss to Brewer last week Priceville head coach Donald Weeks said, "We made mistakes in this game and they were able to capitalize on them, but our guys put the ball on the ground and played a solid game this week."
"In the end it was the penalties that got us," Weeks said about the game where the Bulldogs were found clawing for every yard. This was the second away game for the team this year and they have one more before playing on their home field in two weeks against North Jackson.
Priceville won the opening coin toss and opted to take the ball but quickly fumbled on the second play of the game letting East Limestone take control of the ball. An East Limestone 5-yard penalty and a quick pass play later found the Indians on the Priceville 17-yard line ready to score the first points of the game.
With 8:12 still to play in the first quarter East Limestone running back Jonathon Pinque shot through the Bulldogs' tough defense for the touchdown.
The Bulldogs had a hard time staying away from the two back-to-back penalties on their next possession of the ball and asked for the first time out of the game.
But back at play the Indians' Demarious Cole intercepted the ball from the Bulldogs and ran over 75 yards for the second touchdown of the game.
Another drive down field by Priceville was stopped by the strong defense of East Limestone who took over the ball and scored their third touchdown with 2:15 to go in the first quarter making the score now 21-0.
In the second quarter of play Priceville came out strong and pushed back to the East Limestone 37-yard line where the Bulldogs quarterback Logan Manthey threw to a waiting Aaron Sawyer for Priceville's first touchdown of the game. Kicker Justin Anderson made the extra point to make the score 21-7 with 9:23 to go in the first half.
East Limestone responded with a drive down field from its 19-yard line only to have the ball intercepted by Sawyer. But three plays and 21 yards later the Indians struck back with an interception on the Priceville 23-yard line driving the ball to the end zone for East Limestone's fourth touchdown of the game and taking the score to 28-7 at halftime.
Early in the second half, Priceville's Will Halbrooks scored a 1-yard touchdown run to cut the score to 28-13. East Limestone added a field goal later in the third quarter to go up 31-13.
With 2:28 to go in the third quarter East Limestone's Jacob Appleby needed three separate attempts to make a field goal but a flag was called on the first two kicks. The field goal in the end of the third quarter made the score to 34-13.
The Bulldogs' tailback Eli Allen came out strong in the forth quarter taking the team down to the East Limestone 40-yard line but the Bulldogs fumbled the ball and allowed the Indians to take possession.
But the Bulldogs pushed strong and allowed the Indians only a 1-yard gain to force a punt.
East Limestone's Andrew Hamilton scored the final touchdown on an interception return.
"They had a good offense and we got killed by the (penalty) flags," Eli Allen said after the game.
Eli's father Robert Allen said "they played a good game with a tough team but in the end they could not hold them", and grandfather Ben Allen agreed with that and added he was "proud of the boys".
Priceville plays Columbia High School at Goldsmith Field in Huntsville Friday night at 7 p.m.