The Shelby County Wildcats dropped their first round playoff game, 34-6, at McAdory Friday night.

A steady rushing offense and hard-nosed defense by the Yellow Jackets was too overwhelming for the Wildcats to overcome.

Shelby County started the game with a spark, stopping McAdory on three plays in the opening series of the game.

Their offense was sharp as well.

Led by Tyrone Buie and Maurice Whiting, the Wildcats drove the ball 79 yards in nine plays, down to the goal line.

Buie was 3-for-3 passing for 36 yards and ran for 31 yards while Whiting had 23 yards receiving and 18 on the ground.

Unfortunately, this was as far as the Cats would get. Buie was stuffed at the goal line on first and second downs and then fumbled the snap from center on third down.

Another bad snap on an attempted fourth down field goal was recovered by McAdory on the 20-yard line.

After the game, Wildcat coach Bruce Breland conceded that was the turning point of the game.

&8220;We got down there and made a couple of mistakes,&8221; he said.

&8220;When you get the ball in that kind of position, it’s tough not to get it in. That took a lot of wind out.&8221;

Fired up by the defense’s performance, the McAdory offense took over the game.

At halftime the score was 22-0 in favor of the Yellow Jackets.

It wasn’t until late in the third quarter that the Wildcats were able to put together a scoring drive of their own.

Starting at their own 35-yard line, Shelby County effectively mixed the run and the pass, with Whiting carrying the ball in from six yards out early in the fourth quarter to make the score 21-6.

Shelby County was out-gained 345 to 183 yards and fumbled three times.

Breland said he was impressed with the character his players displayed this year. &8220;It was a battle,&8221; he said. &8220;We went through a lot of unfortunate little injuries. We couldn’t get any consistency.

I think the kids played with so much heart all year. That’s what got us to the playoffs.

&8220;We were down, 21-6, against Valley, a chance to fold up, but they popped back.

That summed up the season on the fact of how hard they wanted to fight, just to be here tonight.&8221;