If anyone wasn’t sure about just how good East Limestone is this season, they know now. The Indians put on an impressive display against previously undefeated West Limestone and walked out of Cavnar Stadium with a 31-17 victory over the Wildcats.

It was the fourth consecutive victory for East, which improved to 4-1 after opening its season with a 21-0 loss to Mars Hill Bible.

“We’ve had a lot of things going on here at school that have taken away from our ability to practice and our ability to do the things we want to do, but these guys have kept on working,” East Limestone coach Jeff Pugh said. “They’ve kept on listening to their coaches and kept on believing in what we do here, and man, it showed tonight.”

Once again it was a potent rushing attack and smothering defense that led the Indians to their fourth consecutive victory.

East Limestone rushed for 328 yards on 44 carries and only needed to attempt four passes, none in the second half. East’s defense also shut down West Limestone’s standout receiver River Helms, who had just three catches for 25 yards.

“They’ve got a real good football player there (Helms) and I felt like we took him away until we got tired right there at the end,” Pugh said. “That’s a good football team we beat tonight, but we’re a good football team, too.”

After losing a fumble on its opening play of the game, East Limestone’s second possession was much better. Fortune Wheeler sprinted for a 55-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter. East was stopped on downs inside the 25-yard line on its next possession, and West Limestone embarked on a long drive of its own. However, the East defense rose up and stopped West on fourth-and-1 at the 20-yard line to take over on downs.

East took advantage of the defensive stop, as four plays later, Kollin Swart broke loose for a 59-yard touchdown run that put East up 14-0 with 4:48 left before halftime.

West answered with another long drive, but once again the East Limestone defense stiffened up near the goal line. This time, the Wildcats settled for a 22-yard field goal by Maiko Bartmann with 1:18 remaining in the first half.

East had a chance to take a larger lead into halftime, as a long passing play put them inside the Wildcats’ 5-yard line. However, the Indians were stopped on a running play just short of the goal line as time expired in the first half to leave the score at 14-3.

But the Indians didn’t let that setback stop them, and took control of the game in the third quarter. After Syrus James made the score 17-3 with a 35-yard field goal, East Limestone’s defense stopped West on a fourth-and-1 run at their own 28-yard line.

Dillon Parris ran 24 yards on the next play down to the 4-yard line, and four more running plays netted a touchdown when Swart plunged across the goal line on fourth-and-goal to put the Indians up 24-3 with 1:47 remaining in the third quarter.

“We’ve got a good bunch of players who fight hard,” Pugh said. “You can’t ask for anymore of them than that. The way our guys kept fighting after they were cramping, they were like ‘Don’t take me out coach, I’m going back in.’ That tells you that you’ve got some character and some team players right there.”

West Limestone finally got some offense going on its next possession. A 38-yard pass from Colin Patterson to Christian Smith on the final play of the third quarter put the ball at East Limestone’s 18-yard line, and Thorne Slaton ran it in for a touchdown on the next play to get West within striking distance.

But East put the game away a few minutes later when Wheeler scored on his second long touchdown run of the night, this one a 59-yarder which basically put the game on ice.

West Limestone had the final score of the night on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Patterson to Brody White with 1:16 remaining.

Wheeler finished the game with 154 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries, while Swart had 118 yards and two scores on 11 rushes.

Patterson threw for 180 yards and a touchdown for West Limestone, with Smith having 86 receiving yards.

Both teams will head back in to region play Friday night. East will travel to play Lawrence County in a Class 5A, Region 8 matchup, while West Limestone (4-1) will travel to play Brooks in a Class 4A, Region 8 clash.

“We’ll find out what we’re really made of the next couple of weeks when we get back into region play,” Pugh said. “We got beat by a very good football team in game one, and I tried to make (the players) believe that, but it’s hard to make them believe when you go through everything we’ve been through. But tonight I think they believe a little bit that’s we’re a pretty good team, too.”