It’s one thing to win the turnover battles.
But if a team doesn’t capitalize on said turnovers, it doesn’t really matter all that much.
Dadeville won the turnover battle Friday night to open the football season against Elmore County, but the Panthers capitalized on their opportunities whereas Dadeville did not.
That was the difference in the game as ECHS walked away with a 28-7 non-region victory.
“We gave them a lot of momentum early just shooting ourselves in the foot and fumbling the ball,” Elmore County coach Kyle Caldwell said. “They made some good plays and they came out with a really good game plan. They stuck in the box and kept us underneath, but you got to make sure you tackle when you do that. So the second half, we were able to take advantage of that, getting the ball on the edge a little bit better.”
Dadeville (0-1) did score its lone touchdown of the game on a fumble recovery by Cal’Marion Moon, who took it 56 yards to the house.
But the Tigers had four other turnovers in their favor, all of which led to three and outs.
“You got to take advantage of the opportunities that you get, and we weren’t able to do that,” Tiger coach Chad McKelvey said. “I thought we played a really good first half, but we just kind of had hard time finding any kind of rhythm and getting anything done offensively.”
In fact, Moon’s fumble recovery for a touchdown was by far the longest play for the Tigers, and it wasn’t even an offensive one. Dadeville finished with only three plays of 10 yards or more.
“We just had a lot of mistakes scattered around offensively,” McKelvey said. “We just got to clean up some things so that we’re consistent. It’s just one of those things where we weren’t able to put together seven or eight plays, right, to be dangerous.”
Meanwhile, Elmore County’s defense didn’t need a slew of turnovers to get the job done. After being stuffed play after play in the first half, the Panthers (1-0) finally started to break through in the third quarter.
Running a two-quarterback system seemed to work for ECHS, which switched between Caleb Spivey and Gage Davis on nearly every drive.
Consistency was an issue for both teams through the first half, but Elmore County put together a couple nice drives in the second half to eventually pull away. It started with a trio of throws from Davis to Tyler Payton, Parker Hobbs and Justin Brooks, which finally got the Panthers into a first-and-goal situation.
Payton, who was a workhorse throughout the night, capitalized with an 8-yard score to put Elmore County ahead by a touchdown. Then with Spivey at QB, Eli Thames got his number called over and over again, eventually capping off the drive with a 4-yard touchdown.
But it was the defense that put the final nail in Dadeville’s coffin, doing what the Tigers couldn’t do all night — capitalizing on a late turnover. Seth McGhee pulled down a highlight-worthy interception, and Payton had the longest run of the game of either team, icing the game with a 48-yard touchdown with just over two minutes left to play.
“I love Tyler; he’s a great player,” Caldwell said. “If he was about 5-foot-8, everybody would be wanting him. But he’s a great player; he works hard and he’s one of our stronger kids pound for pound. He just busts his tail, and he loves football.”
Neither team could get much in the way of the passing game going. “The biggest issue was when we had guys open, we didn’t have time to throw it,” McKelvey said. “That’s a testament to them. They’re big and physical and had us out-manned at places. But our guys played hard; I’m not disappointed.”
