Bodie Pickens

The Fort Dale Eagles literally ran thru, around and over the Mobile Christian Leopards by the score of 48-17 Friday Night.

The Eagles are now 3-1 and sport a 2-0 area record.

Fort Dale racked up seven touchdowns via 355 yards rushing on 40 carries.

Senior tailback Tim James led the stampede with 215 yards rushing on just 14 carries. James had four touchdown scores of 46, 2, 46 and 16 yards.

Fort Dale head coach James "Speed" Sampley said the team did exactly what was expected.

"We (coaching staff) knew on Sunday what type of defense they were going to run on us.

Coming in the game, it was just a question if our offense could execute or not," Sampley said.

"By the look of the score, we executed."

Obviously, the plan was to pound the ball thru the Leopard defense.

As a matter of fact, the Eagles only had 1 passing attempt in the game.

"We didn't need to throw the ball tonight because the running game paid off for us," Sampley said.

Sampley was proud of the offensive line's effort.

"The offensive line opened some huge holes for our runners tonight.

The line knew what was coming from the other side of the ball," Sampley said.

Along with James, several other tailbacks reaped the rewards of the open field provided by this line.

Senior Brady Newton had six carries for 46 yards and one TD.

Fellow senior Peter McGowin mixed it up for 57 yards on just four carries as well as a touchdown.

Not to be outdone, sophomore Barry Boan scored on a 16-yard run en route to 21 yards on five touches.

"It was an overall great team effort," Sampley said.

On the defensive side, the Eagles grounded the Leopards as Mobile Christian had just 140 total yards on 41 plays.

"Our defense did a good job of pressuring their quarterback.

As a result, we shut down their passing game," Sampley said.

Mobile Christian had a mere 4 yards passing against the stout Fort Dale defense.

The Eagles also picked off an errant pass as sophomore Casey Weston snagged the pigskin and returned it 25 yards down the field.

This interception resulted in seven points for the Eagles.

Fort Dale also stuffed the Mobile Christian ground game in the win.

McGowin led all players with 13 tackles.

Junior Cory Johnson accounted for 10 tackles and junior Dalton Gregory had nine takedowns.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Eagles ran with ease down the field.

The scoring started early and Mobile Christian quickly fell behind.

In fact, Fort Dale boasted a 35-10 halftime lead.

Newton started the onslaught with a 25-yard TD run up the middle as Fort Dale scored with 9:06 left in the first quarter.

After a quick three and out, the Leopards fell victim to a 16-yard touchdown scamper by McGowin with 4:22 remaining in the opening quarter.

"All of our running backs performed well tonight," Sampley said.

However, Mobile Christian quickly countered with a 64-yard rushing TD from junior Reginald Toney to cut the lead to 13-7.

Less than a minute later, the Eagles took the momentum for good as James eluded tacklers left and right en route to a 46-yard TD run.

James had 199 of his 215 yards in the first half.

It was 21-7 at the end of the first quarter.

The route continued in the second quarter as Fort Dale scored on the first play of the period.

It was James on a 2-yard burst up the middle with 11:55 remaining in the half.

The Leopards then closed the lead to 27-10 on a 44-yard field goal by junior Felix Ermer.

As the case the entire game, the Eagles countered with more ammo as James scored his third TD of the half on a 46-yard run with 7:06 remaining.

"We jumped on them early and this win felt good," Sampley said.

In the second half, the Eagles extended the lead with rushing touchdowns from James and Boan.