DAPHNE— Bayside Academy scored on their first two possessions on drives of 65 and 59 yards and owned the ball for nearly 14 minutes of the first half. The Admirals led Clark County 14-6 at the half and held on to win their first Class 3A Region 1 contest by the same score.

Bulldogs fullback Keylon Osborne sandwiched a 5-yard touchdown run between Bayside’s two rushing TDs by John Bryant and Ben James’ PAT’s . Both defenses pitched shutouts the rest of the way. The CCHS PAT was not good.

Bryant capped the Admirals first drive with a 4-yard run 11 seconds away from the end of the first period. He scored again on a left-side run with 4:32 left in the half.

Seth Shirley carried the ball five times for 52 of the Admirals 164 total first-half yards

“We didn’t do everything right, but we did much more right than we did wrong,” said Bayside head coach Phil Lazenby. “Overall, we played well. The defense, the kicking game and the offense all executed what we talked about. We didn’t score a heck of a lot of points but we kept our drives alive and kept it out of their (CCHS) hands. And that was a goal we knew we needed to have. Deny them the ball and give ourselves more chances with it.”

Lazenby credited his staff with having his teams ready.

“I can’t thank our coaches enough for the hard work that went into preparing for this one on both sides of the ball. And also the players for buying in and working as hard as they did to get ready. It paid off and I think they get it and that always feels good as a coach.”

He added that CCHS changed their formation and or mechanics early on and nearly threw a wrench in the Bayside defensive scheme.

“They came out doing what we expected and then they went to a different look pretty early. But we had considered it and it’s a tribute to our coaches and our players for how well they adjusted.”

Bayside owned the clock again in the second half with one series of nearly 10 minutes. The Admirals also maintained possession in the final four minutes which ended with QB Reid Norton taking an intentional loss to run out the clock. Bo Ezell and Killian Kahalley each made back-to-back stops for BA including tag-teaming tackles for a loss on two different CCHS series.

Bayside travels to Mobile Christian (1-1, 1-0) Sept. 9 for their next region showdown.CCHS plays at Flomaton next.