By JORDON SEMIEN / For the Reporter

MONTEVALLO—With last week’s lopsided win over Francis Marion still fresh in their minds, the Montevallo High School Bulldogs took to Theron Fischer Stadium for a region match up with the Tigers of Oak Grove. The Tigers fired first but were no match for the Bulldogs’ physical nature as Montevallo rolled to a dominating 48-7 win and a 3-0 start to the season.

Oak Grove won the opening coin toss and chose to receive, looking to take a quick upper hand in the first region game for both teams. Hunter Sims found pay dirt for the Tigers just over three minutes into the game with a 56 yard run for a score. The 7-0 Tiger lead would not last long, as Montevallo’s resident speedster Daqwan Bryant fielded the ensuing kickoff and took it 67 yards to the house to tie the game at seven all.

The Tigers’ next drive was cut short by a Blake Smith interception, returned to the Oak Grove seven yard line; Senior feature back Undraez Lilly gave the Bulldogs a 14-7 lead on a seven yard touchdown run with seven minutes left in the first quarter. Two three and outs by the Tigers and a one yard pass from Quarterback Zach Oden to Receiver Jamal Figueroa ended the first quarter, and opened the flood gates in the second. Two touchdown passes from Oden to Ahmad Edwards of 44 and 20 yards, the second of which was set up by a successful onside kick by Diego Martine, paired with a Kerry Mack 7 yard run for a score left the first half score at 41-7 in favor of Montevallo.

The second half was no kinder to the Tigers as the Bulldogs poured on the physicality. Oak Grove runs were met with pad on pad resistance, as the Bulldogs defended home field, setting up another Oden connection to Edwards, this time from 65 yards out to secure a 48-7 rout.

After the game, Bulldogs Head Coach Andrew Zow gave credit for the team’s 3-0 start to their dedication to preparation, saying “We expect to be good and we expect our guys to practice with excellence and then bring it to the field, and be coachable…and now these guys are starting to buy into it the system and buy into what we’re telling them. And the coaches are doing a heck of a job of getting everyone prepared.”

 

Responding to early deficit:

“Heck of a way to respond. Defensively, they’re hard to prepare for because of the Wing T. I ran the Wing T in High School myself, and we won three state championships with that offense. It’s hard to prepare for. They punched us in the mouth like you said, but it’s the way you respond. I think number five [Lilly] stepped up, started reading his keys and was able to make some plays. But it was a group effort, offensively, defensively, and special teams. These coaches have done an outstanding job from offense, defense, special teams and everyone continues to pull their load. We just have to do it a whole lot sooner. They were able to get after it at first a little bit, but we withstood that and had a heck of a game.

 

Lessons for team after first three games:

“The fact that you’ve done what’s expected of you from our coaches. I know a lot of people don’t expect us to do anything here at Montevallo, but we expect to be a good team every year, regardless what our record shows. We expect to be good and we expect our guys to practice with excellence and then bring it to the field, and be coachable…and now these guys are starting to buy into it the system and buy into what we’re telling them. And the coaches are doing a heck of a job of getting everyone prepared. But the most part is these kids are starting to listen to us and we’re getting great support, but it’s going to continue; hopefully our guys continue to believe in us.”

 

Going to Hope:

“It’s going to take a lot. Those guys are super athletic, can play the game. Offensively, defensively, I know they’re going to be fast. And I know they’ll be pumped to play us; what we have right now, hopefully we can continue the momentum… for the most part, our guys need to understand that everyone’s going to give you their best every week. Holt is going to be no different….It’s going to be a scary game for us, and we’ve got to be prepared. We’ve got to start early and it starts in a few hours I guess.”