East Limestone rolls past Mae Jemison

Published 12:30 am Saturday, September 12, 2020

East Limestone may have dealt with some adversity to start the season, but the Indians have fought through that to open Class 5A, Region 8 play with two dominating victories, including Friday’s 43-15 win over Mae Jemison.

The Indians rolled up 373 rushing yards against Mae Jemison, and held the Jaguars scoreless until late in the fourth quarter when they scored two touchdowns against the East Limestone junior varsity defense.

“We really had a shutout because we put our JV in and the two touchdowns they scored was against the JV,” East Limestone coach Jeff Pugh said. “So really, we pitched a shutout against a very good team. For us to play that well defensively, I felt good about what we did.”

East Limestone (2-1 overall, 2-0 region) was forced to cancel its opening game of the season against Guntersville because of COVID-19 complications, and lost 21-0 against Mars Hill in their opening game the following week.

But since entering region play, East has been dominant, outscoring Lee-Huntsville and Mae Jemison by a combined 93-43.

“If we can find some depth and not get anybody hurt, we’ll be OK,” Pugh said. “The kids are playing hard. We have to get better every week, and that’s what I’ve told them. Winning is great, and we want to win region games because we’re looking to get in the playoffs, but we’re trying to get better at what we do every week and improve in every phase.”

Jordan Gardner was the star of the night Friday. The junior tailback rushed for 134 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries, as East took a 36-0 lead after three quarters and coasted to victory in the fourth.

Kollin Swart added 84 rushing yards on eight carries for the Indians.

Gardner scored his first touchdown of the night on a 4-yard run midway through the first quarter to put East up 7-0. The Indians added two more scores in the second quarter on a 7-yard run by Jed Sutherland and a 45-yard scamper by Angel Cortez to take a 22-0 halftime lead.

Garner put the game away in the third quarter with two more touchdown runs. The first was a 5-yard run with 2:50 remaining in the third quarter. He followed that up with a 45-yard touchdown gallop to cap East’s next possession and put the game completely out of reach.

East Limestone expanded its lead to 43-0 on a Tyler Kelly 7-yard run midway through the fourth quarter before Mae Jemison (0-4, 0-2) added two late touchdowns against the Indians junior varsity. Kel Woods had both scores for Mae Jemison, one on a 16-yard run and the other on a 50-yard run with just over a minute remaining.

East Limestone’s defense held Mae Jemison to just 170 offensive yards, with all of them coming on the ground. The Jaguars failed to complete a pass in 11 attempts.

East Limestone will travel to face Brewer in another region game Friday night. The Patriots are 0-4 on the season, which gives the Indians a good opportunity to start region play 3-0. Pugh said if his team keeps running the ball like they have in their last two games, they will be a tough matchup.

“I feel like we’ve got a shot (against anyone) because of the way we run the football and how hard our guys play,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who can run the ball, and that makes it tough on people if we have good blocking. If we can control the ball and keep our turnovers down, I think we’ll have a shot against everybody we play.”