RED DEVILS COME UP SHORT

The Red Devils Junior Varsity team held their own against East Limestone, falling 27-14 on Monday night. Elkmont has a stable of race horses in the backfield, with Drake Black, Peyton Lovell, and Luke Claunch all breaking huge runs against the Indians. 

The Red Devils also performed consistently on special teams, with Eliseo Nava hitting all attempted extra points and Hunter Boger booting deep punts throughout the contest. 

They will host Clements September 25, following the middle school game.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS - EAST LAWRENCE

The Elkmont Red Devils are looking for a win this evening.  They are traveling to square up with the East Lawrence Eagles.
Kickoff is at 7 pm. 

Weather
A clear sky with a north breeze will watch over the game tonight. Temps will range from 80 at kickoff to 73 at the end of the game.


Predictions: 
Decatur Daily

East Lawrence at Elkmont

Where: Eagle Stadium

What: Class 3A, Region 8 game

Records: Elkmont (0-4, 0-2); East Lawrence (0-3, 0-2)

Last meeting: East Lawrence won 53-17 last season

The skinny: 
Elkmont is trying to snap a 14-game losing skid, while East Lawrence is searching for its first win of the season. … Even though Elkmont has yet to win a game, the Red Devils have made significant strides with first-year coach Duane Wales. … East Lawrence has struggled this season. The Eagles are averaging five points per game, while giving up more than 50. … Elkmont leads the series 4-1.

The Daily picks: 
Elkmont 33, East Lawrence 20


Prep Football Leaders 
Passing: Davis Hobbs, 
*25 completions, 53 attempts, 8 interceptions
*4 touchdowns, 364 yards


Rushing: Cameron Davis
*45 carries, 236 yards, 2 touchdowns

Passes Received: Hunter Pitman 
*10 catches, 174 yards, 2 touchdowns

Tackles:  
Christian Green, 23.5 



Cameron Davis, 21

Luke Clanch, 20
Mark Pena, 17.5

Interceptions: 
Hunter Pitman, 1
Peyton Lovell, 1

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS - EAST LAWRENCE

The Red Devils will be playing at home so that means we are having a great tailgate party before the Elkmont vs. East Lawrence game. We are looking for a win tonight and we want everyone to drop by and share in the fun

GAME DAY INFORMATION:  
5 pm - Tailgating Starts
*You can bring your own refreshments  or you can join us for grilled burgers and hot dogs. We ask that those joining us contribute plates, buns, chips, hot dogs and bring your own drinks (preferably canned drinks that are already cooled which eliminates ice and cups). If you are interested in our grilled burgers and hot dogs, we would ask for a small contribution to the cost of the meat. 
 
*It is important that we know the number of people planning to attend and/or willing to assist us in the preparation. Please Facebook message Sharon Wilson or post on the Elkmont Football Fans Facebook page your RSVP.

 
5:30 pm - Greet the football players in the walk thru line  *If you are interested in coming out and showing support for our boys please come join us at the east side of the weight room under the shade tree. 

7 pm - Kickoff   Weather   
*absolutely beautiful  
*kickoff temps - lower 70s

PREDICTIONS 

Where: Boss Hill Stadium 

What: Class 4A, Region 8 game

Records: 

East Lawrence (1-7, 0-6); Elkmont (0-8, 0-6)

Last season: Elkmont won 42-19

The skinny: Both teams have been eliminated from playoff contention. … East Lawrence is on a three-game losing skid, while Elkmont still is searching for its first win. … Elkmont leads the series 3-0.

The Daily picks: East Lawrence 34, Elkmont 21

Decatur Daily

Boss Hill Stadium, Elkmont
Preview: The loser will finish last in 4A Region 8. It’s a position East Lawrence is familiar with. The school is now in its 18th consecutive losing season. Finishing last is not as familiar to Elkmont. This will be just the third losing season in the past eight years for the Red Devils, which are trying to avoid their first winless season since 1989.
News Courier Prediction: Elkmont 27, East Lawrence 25

ELKMONT WINS BIG AGAINST EAST LAWRENCE

The Elkmont Red Devils football squad scored 42 points and held the host East Lawrence Eagles to 19 points in the Red Devils' league victory on Friday. 

Elkmont used eight different runningbacks and had six different players score in a 42-19 win over East Lawrence Friday. The Red Devils took a 21-0 halftime lead and emptied its bench in their final region game of the season.



Jared Bailey and Mike Tucker scored on 2-yard touchdown runs and Eli Hobbs added a 1-yard score in the first half for the Red Devils. Zeb Pankey and Preston Rouse each added short touchdown runs in the third quarter.

Conner Norman added a 25-yard touchdown in the fourth to finish the scoring for Elkmont. Zeb Pankey led Elkmont with five carries for 53 yards and a touchdown. He also caught one pass for 23 yards.

Quarterback Jordan Nelson completed 3 of 5 pass attempts for 72 yards. Jacob Anderson had two tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery for the Red Devils on defense.

The win secured the No. 3 seed in 4A Region 8 for Elkmont, which will play the Cordova (6-3), No. 2 seed from 4A Region 5 in the first round of the playoffs, Nov. 6.

The Red Devils now possess a 7-2 record. They put it on the line next when they travel to Clements for a non-league battle on Thursday, October 30. Elkmont will face a Colts squad coming off a 42-0 league loss to Lauderdale County (Rogersville, AL). The Colts record now stands at 1-8.

Class 4A - Region 8
School	Wins All	Losses All	Wins Region
Deshler	7	1	6
Wilson	7	1	5
Elkmont	6	2	4
Brooks	4	4	3
Central-Florence	4	4	3
West Limestone	2	6	2
Rogers	2	6	1
East Lawrence	0	8	0

Sources: Athens News Courier, Max Preps
Pictures: Down Home Portraits

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS - EAST LAWRENCE

The Red Devils are traveling to East Lawrence this evening.  Just one more game left in the regular season schedule after tonight's match up with East Lawrence.  The Eagles have really struggled this year.  They have yet to win a game.  The Red Devils should shine tonight.  Go Big Red!!!

Kickoff at 7 pm
 Temperature: 57 degrees

It should be a cool evening with mainly clear skies. If you are going to the game, you may want to take a coat and some gloves,it will be in the mid 50s by 8 PM.

Elkmont at East Lawrence

Where: Eagle Stadium

What: Class 4A, Region 8 game

Records: Elkmont (6-2, 4-2), East Lawrence (0-8, 0-6)

Last meeting: 
Elkmont won 30-0 in 1981.

The skinny: It’s been a season to remember for Elkmont and a season to forget for East Lawrence. The Red Devils are headed to the playoffs as a third-place team. East Lawrence has scored just 26 points and been shut out five times. … Elkmont rolled up nearly 300 yards rushing in last Friday’s 27-10 win over Rogers. Mike Tucker had 120 of his 124 yards rushing in the first half.

The Daily picks: Elkmont 35, East Lawrence 6

To read about the other games in the area, click on Decatur Daily  

Elkmont is probably going to be #3 in Region 8.  That region matches up with Region 5.  Fayette County plays Cordova today for the region championship.  Elkmont would most likely take a trip to play the loser in the first round.

ELKMONT WINNING STREAK SNAPPED

Deshler rolled to its sixth straight win Friday with a convincing Class 4A, Region 8 victory over Elkmont. The win keeps the Tigers (6-1, 5-0) on top the region standings. It also stopped Elkmont’s three-game win streak. Elkmont kept pace with No. 10 ranked Deshler for a half, but couldn’t compete with the Tigers depth in the second half during a 34-0 loss Friday.

The Deshler offense broke open a 14-0 game in the second half with three touchdowns, while the defense was holding the Red Devils (5-2, 3-2) in check. In fact, Deshler limited Elkmont to only 153 yards of offense.

A fumble recovery by Nick Aubrey on the Elkmont 10 set up the game’s first score.
With 10:54 left in the half, Deshler scored again to made it 14-0 at the half.
 
The Deshler offense began to start pulling away in the third quarter. Byrd scored on a 4-yard run to push the score to 20-0. With two minutes left in the third, Chris Robinson caught a 25-yard pass from Howard and outran the defense for another touchdown.

Then with just under 10 minutes left in the game, Deshler scored its last touch down of the game and topped it off with a 2-point conversion.

Elkmont falls to 5-2 on the season and 3-2 in region play, but still sit in third place in 4A Region 8 and can make the playoffs with wins over Rogers and East Lawrence in its next two games.

Sources:  Florence Times Daily

Athens News Courier

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE EAST LAWRENCE EAGLES?

From Alabama to Montana and back.
Ernie Ferguson logged quite a few miles this offseason in his quest for the perfect offensive scheme to fit his East Lawrence High personnel.

More than 4,000 miles later, the East Lawrence High coach believes he has a solution.
At East Lawrence, an option-style offense will remain.
But the scheme and philosophy underwent drastic overhauls.
"This is of a run-pass option with more pre-snap reads," Ferguson said. "I went to Montana to talk to a high school coach who runs this offense, and it's different than anything I've used before. We're changing things up significantly to fit the players we have and don't have."
So why the drastic change?
In high school sports, graduation affects personnel. And East Lawrence's roster lost one of the area's dynamic, and versatile, playmakers: Former quarterback Terrence Deloney, who last season accounted for almost 3,000 yards and 37 touchdowns.
Ferguson said new quarterback Allen West is capable of leading East Lawrence's offense, but has different skill sets than Deloney.
"I started out as a wishbone coach, and then moved to the spread option, so for me as a coach, this is really stepping out of the box," Ferguson said. "We're still going to be a running team, and the veer and counters are still in our package, but overall, it's significantly different and suits the players we have now."

Offense

West enters his debut season with huge shoes to fill. During the last few seasons, Deloney was a fixture for East Lawrence at quarterback, consistently making big plays as both a runner and passer.
Since taking over as East Lawrence's starting quarterback in the spring, West has been one of the busiest players on the Eagles' roster. According to Ferguson, with the new offensive system, West is being asked to do more on the field than any quarterback he has coached.
"With all of the pre-snap reads and post-snap reads, we're throwing a lot of responsibility at Allen," Ferguson said. "He has handled it well, and really has made a lot of progress this offseason."
West already has won the confidence of his teammates.
"Allen isn't as fast as Terrence, but as a quarterback, he does some things better," running back Dakota Millwood said. "For one, he's a better passer, so we're going to be able to spread the ball around more. He's a perfect fit for this system."
With the season quickly approaching, West said he is beginning to gain confidence. Having Millwood returning at running back, along with depth at the running back positions, has helped.
"There has been a lot thrown at me, but I'm catching on," said West, who played some quarterback in 2012 as Deloney's backup. "Some of the reads were difficult at first, but it's like anything else, it gets easier the more you do it."

Defense

Because so much time this offseason was devoted to the new offensive scheme, Ferguson said since fall practice began in August, more emphasis has been placed on improving East Lawrence's defense.
On defense, East Lawrence returns just four starters. In 2012, the Eagles gave up 26.2 points per game.
"My coaching background has always been on offense, but I would rather us be better on defense," Ferguson said. "I would rather win 2-0 than 99-98 any day of the week. We're devoting a lot of time to getting better on that side of the ball, working on fundamentals, tackling, etc."
Ferguson said linebacker Ben Copeland and defensive back Tyler Mitchell have filled leadership roles on East Lawrence's defense.

Prognosis

With just nine returning starters — five on offense, and four on defense — East Lawrence's offseason had a rebuilding theme. The Eagles finished the 2012 season with a 4-6 record and missed the Class 4A playoffs.
Ferguson said the players made progress in the weight room, gaining size and strength, and on the practice field, that's translating into positive signs.
"Strength wise, we had nowhere to go but up," Ferguson said. "And we had a very good offseason in that aspect. I can see signs of progress, but because we don't have a lot of depth, a lot of how successful we are is going to depend on keeping everyone healthy and on the field. If we can stay healthy, I think we could be better."
Despite having so many new starters on the field, East Lawrence's players enter the season with optimism.
"We've definitely improved," Millwood said. "I can see it. All of us can see it. A lot of people already are writing us off, and that's fine, because we all feel like we're going to surprise a lot of people this year."

East Lawrence at a glance

Coach: Ernie Ferguson; third season
2012 results: 4-6; 2-5 in Class 4A, Region 8.
Jamboree:  Elkmont
Region 8 Season opener: Aug. 30 vs. Lawrence County
Returning starters: Four on offense; four on defense.
Big games: Aug. 30 vs. Lawrence County; Sept. 20 vs. West Limestone; Oct. 4 vs. Priceville.

Source:  Decatur Daily

ELKMONT SCORES 23 POINTS IN FOURTH QUARTER

Jonathan Deal chose our game to cover last night.  Please send him an email telling him how much you appreciate him coming.  Be sure to grab a copy of today's paper for those scrapbooks

By Jonathan Dealjonathan@athensnews-courier.com

ELKMONT — It was too little to late for Elkmont Thursday night as the Red Devils dropped a preseason game to East Lawrence 26-23 on their home field. The Eagles led 26-0 after three quarters before a furious Elkmont nearly paid off with a win.

It was Elkmont’s inexperienced, younger players that nearly pulled off the dramatic comeback. Entering the game with a chance to show out and earn some playing time, Elkmont’s youngsters did not disappoint.

“We’re just young, no way around it,” said Elkmont head coach Sean Holt. “We’ve got to grow, but the good things is we can get better. It gives me hope that we’ve got some people that can push each other in practice maybe. Everybody is working to get better. We stated earlier this week that we’re hunting 11 players. We don’t care who the 11 are.”

With little to play for but pride, Elkmont finally got on the board mid way through the fourth quarter when a pair of freshman hooked up for an 11-yard touchdown.  Quarterback Jordan Nelson rolled out to his right and lobbed a ball to Aaron Moss, who made a juggling catch it the goal line for the score.

Click on the video below for 2 minutes of Elkmont football

After Elkmont’s defense forced its second consecutive three-and-out, running back Mike Tucker marched the Red Devils down the field with several hard runs for first downs. Tucker finished as the team’s leading rusher with seven carries for 72 yards, all in the second half. Holt said he challenged his team at halftime to run the ball better in the second half.

“First half, our kids were a little shell-shocked,” Holt said. “They handed it to us, but we came back out with our starters versus theirs and ran the ball in the third quarter. We purposely said we are going to try and run the ball and we did.”

Elkmont finished the drive with an Alexis Hernandez 27-yard field goal in what seemed like nothing more than a special teams exercise, trailing 26-9 with four minutes remaining in the game.

Three plays later and the game were flipped upside down as Elkmont scored two defensive touchdowns in less than a minute. The first from a Bradley Broadway 60-yard interception return for a touchdown. Broadway caught the ball near the visiting sideline and streaked down the field to pull the Red Devils within two scores.

Two plays later and Josue Ferrazas found the ball at his feet from after an East Lawrence fumble. The junior scooped it up and carried it 26 yards for another Elkmont touchdown with 3:01 remaining in the game.

The Eagles were able to hang onto the ball and the game on the next possession as they ran out the clock. Despite the loss, Holt said his team should learn from the highs and the lows of the preseason game.

“We just have to have some kids that finally realize that they can’t say ‘who’s going to do it other than me?’ They know now that, ‘It’s got to be me and I’ve got to get it done,’” said Holt.

Elkmont committed six turnovers in the game while forcing three of its own.  Hayden Renew carried the ball 10 times for 50 yards in the loss.

East Lawrence was led by quarterback Terrance Deloney who carried the ball 15 times for 124 yards and two touchdowns. Carrington Coffey had six carries for 123 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the win.

East Lawrence will open its season at Lawrence County while Elkmont travels to Ardmore. Both games are at 7 p.m. Friday August 31.

Great pictures of the East Lawrence vs Elkmont Jamboree can be found at  Down Home Portraits

JAMBOREE - EAST LAWRENCE COMES TO ELKMONT

Eagles open at Elkmont

BY CHRIS YOW STAFF WRITER - MOULTON ADVERTISER

Published: Thursday, August 23, 2012 9:44 AM CDT

It took a last-second interception to secure a 19-16 win in last year's jamboree against Elkmont for East Lawrence.

This year, the Eagles hope a veteran offense and revamped defense can overcome the Red Devils once again.

Elkmont returns just five starters from last season. The Devils lost do-it-all quarterback Hayden Huseth to graduation, and will likely rely on sophomore Jared Bailey to pick up where Huseth left off.  In addition to losing Huseth, Elkmont must replace leading receiver Cole Glass, something the Red Devils may find more challenging than they would like.  East Lawrence will counter the Red Devils youth with experience.  The Eagles return five starting offensive linemen, all seniors. Something head coach Ernie Feguson is very excited about.

In addition to the linemen, 2011 Advertiser Player of the Year Terrance Deloney returns, giving the Eagles an offensive weapon not many teams will be able to defend.  Defensively, East Lawrence coaches are optimistic about this season, much more so than last. The numbers are up, although depth might be a problem. Counteracting the Red Devils' Wing-T offense will be the true test.  Elkmont runs their offense out of shotgun, much like the Eagles.

Ferguson knows his team will need to be focused and disciplined to slow down Elkmont, but feels like his team is prepared.

Game Time:  August 23 - 6:30 pm      
Location: Elkmont High School

East Lawrence Team Roster
Jersey Num Name Position Grade Height Weight 1 Malik Garth WR/DB 10 6'0" 162 2 Carrington Coffey RB/LB 12 6'0" 170 3 Skye Flynn WR/DB 9 5'6" 150 4 Ben Copeland WR/LB 10 5'10" 165 5 Allen West QB/DB 11 6'0" 142 7 Brian Kemper WR/LB 12 6'1" 170 8 Levi Garner RB/LB 11 5'7" 175 9 Justin Dotson QB/DB 9 5'6" 130 10 Arin Jones WR/DB 9 5'6" 125 12 Adam Terry WR/LB 9 5'10" 140 13 Dustin Hooie WR/DB 12 5'8" 131400 15 Tyler Nitchen WR/DB 10 5'5" 115 16 Austin Hooie WR/DB 12 5'11" 155 17 Eli Nolen WR/LB 10 5'9" 145 20 Brian Swain RB/LB 10 5'9" 156 21 Zachary Nitchens WR/DB 12 5'5" 140 22 Terrence Deloney QB/DB 12 5'9" 195 24 Jeffery Millwood RB/LB 11 5'9" 165 31 Amadi Bolden RB/DB 9 5'6" 130 33 Joe Hardison WR/DB 12 5'11" 140 34 Ryan Dillard WR/DB 11 5'10" 180 35 Timus Lowe RB/LB 9 5'10" 160 50 Ryan Carr OL/DL 11 6'0" 190220 51 Brandon Towe OL/DL 12 6'1" 235 55 Hunter Reeves OL/DL 10 5'10" 256 56 Zeke Sherrell OL/DL 12 6'0" 285 57 Zachary Sherrell OL/DL 12 6'0" 305 60 Tyler Face OL/DL 9 5'9" 180 62 Joe Bailey OL/DL 10 5'8" 215 63 David Chadwick OL/DL 11 5'8" 155 64 Canaan Brooks OL/DL 11 6'0" 215 65 Quamell Fuqua OL/DL 12 6'1" 230 66 Curtis Brown OL/DL 12 6'2" 225 70 Joseph Bailey OL/DL 12 5'9" 250 71 James Robinson OL/DL 10 6'0" 225 74 Joseph Burks OL/DL 10 6'0" 285 75 Terrance Thomas OL/DL 11 5'10" 278 80 Tristan Harris TE/DB 10 5'10" 170 88 Blake Harris WR/DB 9 5'4" 127