Eagles finish non-district unbeaten

In their final game before beginning District 3-5A play next week, the Abilene High School Eagles just barely missed out on pitching a shutout.

The big story of the Eagles 24-7 win over a tough Tyler Lee squad was the AHS defense which forced eight Red Raider turnovers. Among the turnovers were five interceptions -- including two each by Chris Williams and Tyler Hale.

The five interceptions fell one short of the AHS school record that was set in 1955 according to the Abilene Reporter-News.

Despite the turnovers, the Red Raiders still outgained Abilene 275-158 and held a 13-8 advantage in first downs.

"Tyler Lee?s got a stout defensive football team and they?ve showed that all year long, but our defense played extremely well," AHS coach Steve Warren said. "Eight turnovers and five of those are interceptions, that was a great night for our defense one more time."

The Eagles also recovered three fumbles in the second quarter.

"That?s what we pride ourselves on," Williams said. "That?s what we work on every day. We try to make turnovers a big part of our game, and we came out and executed.

"It?s across the table. We?ve got guys 15, 16 deep who are ready to play at any position. We were out there playing with an intensity that they (opponents) match."

Abilene High got off to a quick start as Herschel Sims returned the game's opening kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown -- his second such score in the last three weeks.

After getting a field goal late in the first quarter from Randy McKay, the Eagles used a short three-yard touchdown run from quarterback Stephen Warren in the final minute of the first half to take a 17-0 lead into the locker room.

Warren helped extend the lead in the third when he hit Alex Tomares with a 27-yard scoring strike with 8:58 to play in the third.

Tyler Lee managed to avoid being shut out for the second time this season when running back Da Da Brown from two yards out with 24 seconds to play. Brown finished the game with 144 yards on the ground.

"The (Lee) defense played as well as they ever played in their life, as good as they?ve played since I?ve been here," said Red Raiders coach Mike Owens. "We cannot turn the ball over eight times and beat anybody. I don?t care if our defense held them to zero yards, we couldn?t beat anybody doing that."

All that mattered for AHS, Steve Warren said, was the outcome.

"We don?t ever talk about yards, we talk about points," he said. "That?s all we talk about ? how many points the other team scored. Our (starters) were not on the field when they scored that last touchdown. And if we don?t turn it over right there at the end, they don?t score anyway."

One reason for the Eagles? total was they didn?t have far to go, starting scoring drives at the Lee 31-, 30- and 29-yard lines.

"I thought we won the field position battle," Steve Warren said. "I thought we got better in our special teams tonight, which helped us do that."

Date of Article: Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:24 am

Related Content:
- Abilene