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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

ATHENS – The Shelby County Wildcats used a 21-point third quarter to turn on the jets and dominate the East Limestone Indians 43-7 on Nov. 1 at East Limestone High School.

With the win, Shelby County finished the regular season 8-2–flipping last season’s 2-8 record on its head–and will come back from the long road trip to north Alabama with a head full of momentum heading into a home playoff matchup with Citronelle on Nov. 8.

“It means a lot,” Shelby County coach Zeb Ellison said of the win. “We had last week off, came out a little rusty. The intensity wasn’t quite where it needed to be, but we picked it up in the second half and the most important stat is the one at the end of the game, as long as you’re in the win column. I’m proud of the guys going at it.”

Anthony Palmieri had another massive night for the offense, rushing for 316 yards and three touchdowns off 36 carries, and his impact started early on in the contest.

East Limestone gave the ball to the Wildcats early on after a missed field goal, and Palmieri punished the hosts with a 30-yard rushing touchdown to open up the scoring. Presley Duke added a 2-point conversion to make the lead 8-0 midway through the first quarter.

That scoreline held through the end of the period, but just two minutes into the second quarter, Palmieri scored again from seven yards out, which put Shelby County up 14-0 with 10 minutes to go in the half.

A turnover on downs gave the ball back to the Wildcats in plus-territory, but a fumble stifled their hopes of capitalizing.

However, Dominic Woods responded with a sack to back up the Indians to the Shelby County 41, and two minutes later, the Indians punted the ball away with four minutes remaining in the half.

Starting from their own 7-yard line, Palmieri got the Wildcats going by putting them on the East Limestone 30. Soon enough, Tyson Duncan scored from 30 yards out and tacked on a 2-point conversion to increase the lead to 22-0, a lead that held for the final three minutes of the half.

Despite the three-score advantage, Ellison believed his side wasn’t playing with enough energy and could be doing even better because of mistakes and penalties that went against them.

“We didn’t have any intensity and were very sloppy,” Ellison said. “We had some personal fouls and unsportsmanlikes in the first half. Whether I agree with the calls or not, it doesn’t really matter. We’ve got to really clean up those things, and for the most part, I think our guys did in the second half and we were able to establish the run a little bit better and were able to get some pass plays when we needed it and kinda loosen up a little bit, so I thought our guys accepted the challenge and were able to go out and do some good things.”

The halftime speech worked like a charm, and Shelby County rolled to three more scores in the third quarter alone to nearly double the team’s lead.

Another long Palmieri run got the Wildcats to the Indians 20, and for the second time of the night, Duncan scored. This time, he hit paydirt from seven yards out while TJ Minton hit the extra point to put the visitors up 29-0 with nine minutes remaining in the third.

Just a minute later, Campbell Aderholt picked off an East Limestone pass and got the offense set up past midfield on the 45-yard line.

From there, Palmieri struck twice, first to get to the edge of the red zone on the 20-yard line and then to score his third touchdown of the game. The 15-yard touchdown and ensuing PAT put Shelby County up 36-0 with six minutes remaining in the third quarter.

The Wildcats capped off the scoring with a big play in the air as Ryan Sipes found Cooper Pennington for a 25-yard touchdown with less than a minute remaining before the fourth quarter, which made it a 43-0 lead.

Shelby County killed off an early Indians drive in the fourth with a Brady Blackwell interception. However, the hosts would get on the board with a Roderick Lavender Jr. rushing touchdown from four yards away with two minutes left in the game and the result decided.

The Wildcats sealed the 43-7 win from there and grabbed their third straight win to end the regular season.

In addition to Palmieri’s 316-yard night, Noah Trenholm had 11 rushes for 63 yards and Duncan rushed four times for 41 yards and two touchdowns. Combined with 14 yards from quarterback Ryan Sipes, Shelby County rushed for 448 yards of its 513 yards of total offense.

Sipes made up the other 65 yards with a 3-of-7 passing performance for one touchdown, the 30-yard score by Pennington, which was his lone catch. Ethan Hall caught three passes for 35 yards.

As for the Wildcats defense, which pitched a shutout until late in the game, Cale Blevins got a team-high six tackles, including four solo tackles and a tackle for loss. Pennington secured five tackles, including three solo tackles, and Brennan Robinson earned four solo tackles.

All three of Woods’ tackles were for loss, including one solo tackle. Andres McGinnis, Aderholt and Eli Carlisle joined him at the three-tackle mark.

McGinnis and Palmieri each had two pass deflections, which was tied for the most on the team, and Aderholt and Blackwell also defended the air with an interception each.

After the game, Ellison said that the win was a great opportunity to get momentum ahead of the playoffs, or as he called them, “the second season.”

“Our kids know what’s on the line, and we’ve had such great senior leadership,” Ellison said. “We want to obviously carry into next week, and hopefully, we’re playing the week after, but we’re just trying to take it one day at a time, one week at a time and see where the road takes us.”

The 8-2 Shelby County Wildcats will host another set of 8-2 Wildcats from Citronelle in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs on Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. at Papa McCombs Stadium.