Tallassee opens area play against Central Clay County

By DALTON MIDDLETON Sports Editor

The Tallassee football team is coming off backto-back emotional wins to start the season, and now the Tigers turn their sights towards area play.

Tallassee hosts Central Clay County on Friday night at J.E. “Hot” O’Brien Stadium. The game is the AHSAA Class 5A, Area 4 opener.

The Tigers opened the season with a blowout win over rival Reeltown, and they let emotions roll over into the first half of the Booker T. Washington game last week. But despite being down by two touchdowns at halftime, Tallassee came back to win the game.

Head coach Mike Battles is hoping his team doesn’t have another sluggish start following an emotional win. “We came off a really emotional week in Week 1, and I don’t think our mind was where we were supposed to be last week,” Battles said. “We’d been listening too much to our own newspapers and such and Booker T. Washington came to play. But our boys woke up in the second half and I’m proud of them.”

Central Clay County is off to an 0-1 start this season, but the Volunteers are always a tough matchup. Tallassee beat Central Clay County last year, 39-28, but the two teams finished in part of a three-way tie for first place in the area.

Central Clay has been known for having a tough defense year-in and year-out, and the Volunteers showed that last year by holding five opponents to a touchdown or less.

This year’s defense didn’t get off to the best start. In the opener against Benjamin Russell last week, Central Clay gave up 33 points in the 33-14 loss. Benjamin Russell had 353 yards of total offense, 209 of which came on the ground.

Tallassee’s offensive strength so far this season has been on the ground. The Tigers have racked up over 200 rushing yards in each of the first two games. The majority of that has come from the two-headed quarterback tandem.

Tyler Ellis, the starting quarterback, has led the team in rushing in each of the first two games. He currently has 205 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns through two games, but Cade Everson has also been successful.

Everson has 20 carries for 123 rushing yards this season, averaging right around six yards per rush.

James Bender, Josh Griffin and Caden Griffith have also been part of the run game. Ellis has taken over each of the last two games on the ground. After scoring twice on the ground in Week 1, he scored all three touchdowns on the ground in Week 2’s comeback win. He added a two-point conversion run.

“Tyler is taking over games and he’s doing exactly what we knew he would this year,” Battles said.

Central Clay’s offense will also have a tough time running the ball on Tallassee. The Tigers area allowing only 12.5 points per game to start the season, and they’ve forced multiple turnovers and been at their best when opposing teams are in scoring position.