When you are facing off against the No. 2-ranked team in the state, you have to bring one of your best games to come away with a win.
For the W.S. Neal Eagles Friday night against the class 4A’s No. 2-ranked UMS-Wright Bulldogs, playing their best game did not happen as the Eagles made three turnovers in the first half and suffered a 38-16 loss. The loss dropped the Eagles of East Brewton to 2-2 overall and 0-2 in region play. It was the second straight loss of the season after falling two weeks ago to Clarke County in Grove Hill.
UMS-Wright picked off two W.S. Neal passes and a W.S. Neal fumble to race out to an early 21-0 lead after one quarter of play.
UMS then outscored the Eagles 14-0 in the second quarter to build a 35-0 lead.
W.S. Neal held UMS to a field goal in the third quarter to fall behind 38-0 heading into the fourth quarter.
Just when it looked like W.S. Neal would be shut out for their second straight game, the Eagles scored the final 16 points of the game, but suffered the loss by 22 points.
Trey Taylor got W.S. Neal on the board with 4:55 left in the game as he scored on a 1-yard run.
Malcolm Hawthorne added the final score of the night as he ran in from 23 yards out with 1:01 left in the game.
“UMS-Wright is a very good football team,” W.S. Neal head coach Doug Hoehn said. “They were tough for us to deal with. Our kids played hard. We made mistakes in the first half that hurt us. Three turnovers led to 21 points for them. We played much better in the second half. We just have to play four solid quarters of football. We got the kids in at halftime and talked about it. I think we have a chance to be a good team before the season is over with. We are going to have to do that pretty quick though.”
W.S. Neal had only nine first downs in the loss with UMS having 15.
The Eagles racked up 227 yards rushing on 35 carries and went 2-for-5 passing with two interceptions and a total of eight yards. Overall, W.S. Neal tallied 235 yards of offense.
UMS had 180 yards on 38 carries and went 7-for-11 passing with one interception and a total of 135 yards. Overall, the Bulldogs had 315 total yards of offense.
Quenton Samuels had 92 yards rushing on 17 carries while Trey Taylor had 83 on 13 carries and score one touchdown.
Malcolm Hawthorne added 53 yards on four carries and had a score.
Lane Chavers went 1-for-3 passing with two interceptions. His lone pass completion was to Taylor for five yards. Taylor went 1-for-2 passing with a 2-yard pass to Jacolby Hawthorne.
Down 38-0 late in the game, Hoehn said he was proud of his team for not quitting.
“This bunch is not going to quit,” he said. “We told them at halftime to fix the mistakes. If we would have come out like in the second half and made the same mistakes, this game would have ended up 50-0. So, we settled down and played strong defense against the same exact stuff they were running in the first half. Offensively, we started to settle down a little bit. We picked up their stunt package a little bit better. We have to let this one go, but we have to learn from it also. We just have to put four quarters together in one game.”
W.S. Neal will host Calhoun Friday for homecoming. Game time is set for 7 p.m. with festivities planned throughout the day.