By Chris Megginson | For the Reporter

CHILDERSBURG –Shelby County High School held Childersburg High School to a 7-0 game through three quarters before the host Tigers added a fourth-quarter touchdown to win, 13-0.

It is the first time the Wildcats have been shut out in Coach Heath Childers’ five-year tenure. The last time Shelby County was held scoreless was Oct. 25, 2013 at Sylacauga (35-0).

The positive? It’s the best the defense has played in a long time, which was one of the biggest focuses for the Wildcats coming into the season.

“The kids really played hard … It was a close game. The defensive coordinator did a great job putting together a good defensive game plan for them. It was the best defense I’ve seen here in a while at Shelby County,” Childers said. “Offensively, we just couldn’t find an identity. We tried to do too much and couldn’t get a rhythm going. All of that’s on me, 100 percent.”

Shelby County reached the red zone only twice, moving down to the 12 early in the second quarter and responding to Childersburg’s second TD with a drive to the 16 with about eight minutes to play. Both drives were killed by negative plays and penalties.

“It could have been a different ball game, if we could have capitalized on those … We really needed to get a score there (in the fourth),” Childers said. “That just goes back to how well our defense did play. They were on the field a lot. They answered the call. I’m really proud of how they did.”

JT Pennington led the defense with six tackles. Chase Franklin added four stops and Isaac Montgomery had three.

The Wildcats were held to 169 yards of total offense, led by quarterback Chase Holliman’s 83 total yards. Holliman rushed for 19 yards and was 6-of-13 for 64 yards passing and threw two interceptions. Isaac Montgomery had the biggest gain of the night with a 34-yard reception. Shelby County had 103 yards rushing on 29 carries. Tyrese Goodman led the ground game with 33 yards on five attempts.

“Hats off to Childersburg. They did a great job tonight. We’ll start back Sunday and get ready for Montevallo next week, and we’ll go play. I feel really good about it because we have a good group of kids.”

The game was the first of two weeks in a row between Shelby County and Class 4A opponents SCHS has not played since 2003. Shelby County (0-1) will host Montevallo (1-0) for the Wildcats’ home opener Aug. 31.