Sparkman plays hard, loses at Decatur 7-0

Special shutout
Decatur moves to 4-0 on season with 7-0 victory over Sparkman
By Paul Stackhouse
DAILY Correspondent

Special teams and special plays.When the Decatur High football team put the two together Friday night at Ogle Stadium, the end result was a special 7-0 Class 6A, Region 8 victory over the Sparkman Senators.In what turned out to be an outstanding defensive battle from beginning to end, the only score of the game came as a result of the Red Raiders' special teams unit.Midway through the second quarter with the ball resting on Decatur's 49-yard line, Sparkman's Jusmon Rivers lined up in punt formation. With the snap of the ball, Decatur's Heath Esch broke through the Senators' defensive wall to block the punt, setting up what would turn out to be the Red Raiders' only scoring drive.Following the blocked punt, Decatur marched 48 yards in nine plays with senior running back Steve Shackelford scoring from the 7 on a draw play with 1:35 left in the half.Joey Woller's point after kick was good giving the Red Raiders the final points of the game.Shackelford picked up 102 yards on 22 carries in the game."I was lined up in front of my guy, and I was supposed to rush his outside shoulder," Esch said. "The punter rolled to my left and the next thing I know I was there. I didn't have to dive or jump, all I did was stick my hands straight out and I blocked it. "Even though the special teams play led to Decatur's lone touchdown, Esch said his effort was not anything special."All I can say is that we're 4-0," Esch said. "We didn't get that way just by making a few special plays. We got that way by covering each other's back. On this team, everybody relies on everybody. Without that, we wouldn't be 4-0."With a little over two minutes to play in the game, the Sparkman defense stopped the Decatur offense at the Red Raiders' own 29. Quarterback Jesse Perrin, who also serves as the Red Raiders punter, delivered a 48-yard punt to push Sparkman back to its own 23."I guess I should have been nervous, but I wasn't," Perrin said. "I had no worries with the punt protection I had been getting all night."Even though they were deep in their own territory with less than two minutes to play, the Senators' offensive unit didn't panic and moved the ball to the Decatur 8-yard line in 11 plays. With one play left in the game, the Red Raiders faithful rose to their feet, cheering the Decatur defense on.Sparkman quarterback Whitney McKinney took the snap and rolled to his left looking for an open receiver. For a brief second, it appeared that McKinney had receiver Josh Brown open in the end zone, but Decatur defensive back Demarrius Goode was ready for the play. Goode cut in front of Brown to knock the ball harmlessly to the ground, securing the Decatur victory."They had been running the same pass route all night," Goode said. "It was a stop-and-out play and I knew they were going to run it on that last play. I mean I just had that feeling they were going to do it and I was right. It was just inside the end zone, and they would have scored but I was able to block it."Decatur coach Jere Adcock said the hard-fought victory was also a learning tool for his team."We had a lot of players that grew up some tonight," Adcock said. "This is the first year of varsity for a lot of our guys. I even have one in the secondary who has never even played football before."Sparkman has a very good, well coached, athletic team. It took a tremendous effort on our part to win this game and I am very proud of the way we did it."Decatur (4-0, 2-0) finished the game with 148 yards of total offense, while Sparkman (1-3, 1-2) managed to pick up 299 yards of total offense.

4th

Passing

• #2 McKinney 12-30 196 yards 0 TD 1 Int

Punting

# 22 Jusmon Rivers- 5 punts -29,53,44,19,43.
37.6 yard average.

Rushing

• # 36 Williams 6-45
• # 22 Rivers 10-28
• # 27 Elston 9-20
• # 2 McKinney 4-(-3)

Receiving

• #22 Rivers 4-80
• #13 J.Brown 4-77
• #20 Deloney 2-16
• #27 Elston 1-13
• #80 D.Brown 1-10

Sparkman

Decatur