By Justin Graves

Justin@athensnews-courier.com

ATHENS – Saturday night, Athens showed the entire community why they are a considered a state championship contender this season by knocking off East Limestone 44-15 in front of a capacity crowd.

“I can’t think of a better way to start the season,” Athens coach Allen Creasy said. “This is what high school football is all about. There is nothing any better than rivalry games and we hope this can be a good rivalry for a long time.”

Going into the season, everyone knew the Golden Eagles would have a strong passing game, the only question was if the running game would be in place. Newcomer Ferrell Williams – rejoining the football program after missing several years while playing basketball – put any questions about Athens’ running game to rest in the season opener by rushing for 71-yards and scoring one touchdown. He also had 50-yards receiving.

“It feels really good to be back out here on the football field,” Williams said. “Everybody was saying we couldn’t run the ball. I wanted to prove them wrong. Our offensive front did a great job blocking for me tonight. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

East Limestone threatened early. After Williams lost a fumble on the Athens’ 22-yard line, the Indians moved the ball within the 15, but turned it over on downs. With a heavy dose of Robert Brown and Williams, the Golden Eagles went on an 11-play drive that ended in an 8-yard Rob Ezell touchdown pass to Dewon Tisdale. Matt Jackson made the extra point to give Athens a 7-0 lead with 1:12 remaining in the first quarter.

“We moved the ball really well tonight,” Ezell said. “I have to hand it to our running backs and offensive line, they took care of business tonight.”

On the ensuing series, Athens defensive line showed why it is considered one of the best in the state when defensive end Karlos Jones stripped the ball from an East Limestone player and carried 18 yards for a touchdown. Jackson’s extra point was good.

“Our defense made some good plays tonight,” Creasy said. “We were able to create several turnovers and capitalize on them. That was really big.”

East Limestone struck back two plays later when quarterback Chad Dewitt hit LaGarius Mayberry on a post for a 52-yard touchdown. The Indians’ faked the extra point and Dewitt dove in the endzone for two points.

“Our guys fought hard,” East Limestone coach Jeff Pugh said. “We made several mistakes early in the game and it hurt.”

East Limestone started to shift the momentum their way midway through the second quarter when Ezell was forced out of the pocket and threw a bad pass that was intercepted by Mayberry on the 11-yard line. The Indians drive fell short, forcing a punt, but Sam Chaney couldn’t field the snap and was sacked on the 5-yard line. Jones punched it in to give Athens a 21-8 lead.

“Mistakes killed us tonight,” Pugh said. “You can’t do that against teams like Athens.

Athens scored twice in the third quarter and two more times in the fourth quarter.

East Limestone found the endzone in the third quarter.

“I’m very please with how we handled ourselves tonight,” Creasy said. “We were able to get a talented East Limestone team out of their game tonight. This was a huge win for our program.”