Begin with a Win

On Friday, August 31st, the 2012 high school football season in Alabama officially began. The Ranburne Bulldogs headed to Georgia to take on the Mt. Zion Eagles.

This would be Mt. Zion's first game in their brand new stadium. The Eagles and their new head coach had a statement to make in front of the huge crowd that had shown up. But, they weren't the only ones who had something to say.

Ranburne's new Offensive Coordinator had a message for his guys before kickoff. But, I'll leave that between him and the team. After winning the coin toss, the Dogs took the ball first, and his message was pretty clear. They picked up about 8 yards on the first play, and followed that with a 40+ yard gain. Within just a couple of minutes, we were in the red zone. That's when the officials decided to make themselves heard. I've never seen a team get an illegal motion penalty before the coach even signaled in the play. I'm not one who blames everything on bad officials, but that's pretty pathetic. Ranburne ended the night with 75+ penalty yards. And that doesn't reflect the five or so penalties that were declined.

The Dogs kept fighting. They'd take a step forward and two back. But they didn't give up. The Defense kept the Eagles off the board and gave Coach and his Offense the time they needed. It was 4th and 8 from the 20. Coach knew which play he wanted to run, only...the intended receiver that had looked good in practice was injured during the opening drive. The Eagles called timeout, giving him time to talk to his guys and settle them down. So, on 4th down, QB Jared Edwards finds the open man in the back of the end zone, giving Ranburne its first TD of the year.

Despite the penalties, the Dogs took a 7 point lead into halftime. They moved the ball well all night, but just weren't able to put points on the board. In the second half, the Eagles dug deep and put together a touchdown drive. Their only score game with 4:30 left in the game. As they lined up for the PAT, I started wondering if the offense was ready to mount a game-winning drive of their own. But, the kick missed its mark. All Ranburne had to do was pick up a couple of first downs and watch the clock expire, leaving them with the W.

It wasn't easy. It wasn't pretty. But it was fun to watch. The Eagles weren't going down without a fight. Neither were we.

2012 Ranburne Bulldogs