Zach Piles (35) and Caleb Cunningham sack Ardmore quarterback Noah Barnett during the Indians' victory over the Tigers Friday night.  

After a first half of sloppy play and numerous mistakes, East Limestone coach Jeff Pugh had seen enough. With his team trailing county rival Ardmore 19-15 at halftime, he made it very clear to his players he was not pleased with their performance.

Whatever he said at the break worked, as the Indians scored touchdowns on all five of their second half possessions to rally for a 51-26 victory in a key Class 5A, Region 8 contest.

“I was not nice at the half,” East Limestone coach Jeff Pugh said. “I challenged (the players) at halftime. I told them I was fixing to play the JV. And boy, did they come out and change what they were doing. I’m very proud of the way they responded in the second half.”

East Limestone running back Wyatt Wilburn, who rushed for 112 yards and four touchdowns, said the message was well received by the players.

He came in, and was screaming and yelling,” Wilburn said with a laugh. “He just told us he wasn’t going to change anything, but we had to execute better. He knocked some sense back into us, and we came out and played hard.”

The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams making momentum-changing plays.

East got on the board first, when Wilburn scored on a 24-yard run less than two minutes into the game. He then ran in the 2-point conversion to put the Indians up 8-0.

Ardmore’s first score came in an unconventional way, as Wilburn was tackled in the end zone for a safety. The Tigers took the free kick and drove into scoring territory, with Saul Rodriguez drilling a 33-yard field goal to make the score 8-5.

Ardmore took advantage of a special teams blunder to score its first touchdown, as the Indians kicked a 1-yard punt that set up the Tigers at the 8-yard line. Austin Winton scored two plays later on a 5-yard run to give Ardmore a 12-8 lead.

East regained the lead on a 48-yard touchdown run by Nile Foss, but Ardmore scored the final points of the half on a 3-yard touchdown run by Chase Lay.

“We played really well in the first half,” Ardmore coach Andrew Smith said. “We got some breaks and forced some key turnovers that helped us out a lot.”

Pugh said Ardmore did a good job of taking advantage of his team’s mistakes.

“You’ve got to give (Ardmore) credit,” Pugh said. “When we opened the door of opportunity, they kicked it in, and they were taking it to us. Those kids are going to fight you hard. You start giving them a little bit of life, you’re going to be in for a dogfight and we were for a while.”

But the second half was all East Limestone, as the Indians offense could not be stopped. Wilburn scored two touchdowns in the third quarter on a 26-yard run and an 8-yard run to give East a 30-19 lead.

Ardmore had a chance to get back in the game early in the fourth quarter, as the Tigers drove inside the East Limestone 20-yard line. But on fourth down, Noah Barnett’s pass was intercepted by Ashton Lockett at the goal line and returned 46 yards.

Foss put the game out of reach two plays later when he scored on a 60-yard run. Foss finished the game with 156 yards on just nine carries. East added two more scores in the fourth quarter. Zach Cosby scored on a 1-yard run and Wilburn scored his fourth touchdown of the game on a 4-yard run in the final minutes.

“They continued to do what they did first half, and we couldn’t stop them,” Smith said. “We couldn’t get off blocks and couldn’t break tackles. We were in position on a lot of the plays to make tackles and couldn’t do it. Their running backs are quick and were able to get out into space and make plays.”

Ardmore’s only touchdown in the second half came on a 1-yard sneak by Barnett with 4:27 remaining in the game. The score was set up by Waynemond Perry’s 89-yard kickoff return following East’s second-to-last touchdown.

East Limestone had 436 rushing yards on the game, with Wilburn and Foss combining for 268. Quarterback Andrew Parris only attempted three passes, completing two, but had 79 yards rushing on six carries.

Barnett had the bulk of Ardmore’s offense through the air, throwing for 170 yards on 11-of-19 passing. Anthony Taylor made five receptions for 73 yards while Mack Hughes had two catches for 43 yards.

Brooks and Mae Jemison are the early favorites to finish first and second place in Region 8, but the third and fourth-place spots look to be wide open among the remainder of the teams in the region, and Pugh knows it will be a tough fight to grab one of the two final playoff positions.

“We have got to get better to beat those teams on down the road,” he said. “We have got to get better from game to game, because there’s going to be some big games coming up in the next four weeks and we’ve got to win some of those games to get a playoff spot.”

East Limestone (2-1, 1-1) will travel to face Lee-Huntsville on Thursday night while Ardmore (1-2, 0-2) will host St. John Paul II Friday.