By Chris Megginson | For the Reporter

BIRMINGHAM – A third quarter touchdown was highlight of the night for Shelby County, but nowhere near enough as the Wenonah Dragons beat the Wildcats, 52-8.

“It was absolutely embarrassing, and that’s on me. We had some kids out there that played hard tonight. We didn’t do our job as coaches,” said Shelby County head coach Heath Childers.

Wenonah took a 24-0 lead into halftime after the Wildcats could not get their offensive schemes going in the first half. Childers said with their tight end out, they made adjustments to their offense during the week, which meant their backs needed to hit their hole quicker. When that didn’t work in the first half, more adjustments were made at halftime.

“I had a poor game plan offensively and we just didn’t do a very good job this week as coaches getting this team ready to play,” Childers said. “It was just a poor, poor job coaching this week, and I take the blame and responsibility for that.”

Early in the third quarter, Shelby County was moving the ball down field, but Wenonah recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown to make it 32-0. On the next drive, Chadwyn Russ broke a 45-yard touchdown run on the triple option to put the Wildcats on the board.

“He’s a dynamic player. We’ve just got to figure out how to let him run with the ball more,” Childers said.

Lamont Bush found his gap on the sweep to convert the 2-point run to make it 32-8.

Nevada Wages led Shelby County with 72 yards on nine rushing attempts, while Russ had 65 yards on five carries and the touchdown. He was 1-for-2 passing with an 11-yard pass to Wages and an interception.

Shelby County (2-2, 1-2 Class 5A, Region 5) will travel to Springville (0-4) for its next game Friday, Sept. 29.