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By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

MONTEVALLO – The injury bug hit Montevallo hard this year, but the Bulldogs have yet to roll over and give up despite one of their toughest schedules in recent history.

The uphill battle continued on Friday, Oct. 20, as the Bulldogs hosted Class 3A, No. 2 Gordo in Montevallo in a region matchup. Coming into the game, the Greenwave—who have become a consistent contender in the 3A classification—were scoring 34 points per game.

Gordo’s offense continued to shine in this one as they ran away to a 59-27 win to improve to 7-1 on the season and 5-0 in region play, as they clinched the Region 4 championship.

“Gordo has a great team,” Montevallo head coach Brandon Wilcox said after the game. “They’re the measuring stick in our region.”

Despite the final score, it was another week that the Bulldogs battled to the end after falling behind big.

“I feel like this is the second week in a row we have gotten behind a little bit, but we still went on to finish strong,” Wilcox said. “I’m proud of the kids for that.”

Montevallo really came out ready to play early and gave Gordo a battle in the first quarter, trailing just 16-7 at the end of one

The Greenwave, however, answered as a No. 2 team should when they scored unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 37-7 lead into the half.

“When you look at some of the plays they scored on in the first half, I think we had three or four missed tackles on each one,” Wilcox said. “That’s where we are a little bit young and have some things to work on.”

Gordo came out in the third quarter and outscored the Bulldogs 14-7 to extend its lead to 51-14 with a quarter remaining.

Just like Wilcox referenced, Montevallo didn’t fold and continued battling despite being down by close to 40 points. They outscored Gordo 13-8 in the final frame and although there were some backups in, it still was a confidence booster for the young guys to see good things happen.

“We were hoping to come out here tonight and compete with them, and I think we did, but we’ve just got to be more consistent,” Wilcox said. “We have some guys that are having to play a little before their time, but they’re exciting me by the way they’re fighting and continuing to battle.”

Arion stele ran for 221 yards and three touchdowns for Gordo in the win.

Montevallo fell to 2-5 overall on the season and 0-4 in region play. The Bulldogs will get their best chance at a region win in their region finale against a 0-5 Carbon Hill team on Friday, Oct. 20.

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