By ANTHONY RICHARDS | For the Reporter

Jemison captured its second victory of the 2018 football season with a 53-44 win at home against Shelby County on Oct. 26.

Both teams traded scoring drives throughout the game, and the lead bounced back and forth as a result.

The game was tied at 20-all midway through the third quarter, but from that point on the teams combined to score 57 points over the final quarter and a half of play.

“It was two blue collar communities going at it tonight, and neither one of them wanted to lose,” Jemison head coach Van Clements said. “I’m glad we came out on top.”

The teams went about moving the ball in completely different ways.

Jemison pounded the ball on the ground, while Shelby County challenged the Panther secondary through the air.

The key to Jemison’s offensive success was that the line consistently created holes for the backs to the run through.

They continually pushed around the Shelby County defensive line and Noah Gilliland, A.J. Jackson and Deonte Williams took advantage of the running room that was given.

“I just always had that wide open hole to run,” Gilliland said. “We always fight and to see us get it at the end is fun to see.”

Jemison quarterback Daniel Martin was a scoring machine in the second half. He ran for three touchdowns and threw for another on a play-action pass to Patrick Pickett.

Shelby County was able to exploit the JHS secondary and hit some deep bombs for scores.

However, making up for the struggles of the secondary was the play of the Panthers’ defensive line, which had success with penetration and batting balls down at the line of scrimmage.

Jemison wraps up the season at home against West Blocton on Nov. 2.