What Maplesville hopes will be a deep run in the Class 1A football state playoffs got off to an encouraging start on Friday with a 48-13 over Talladega County Central.

The No. 4 Red Devils (10-1) scored on their first three possessions and never trailed but made enough mistakes to give coach Brent Hubbert and his staff plenty to work on before a trip to No. 5 Loachapoka, which defeated Holy Spirit, 38-0, in its first-round game.

“We’re glad we won, glad to be playing next week,” Hubbert said. “We’ve definitely got some ball security stuff to work on. If it hadn’t been for the turnovers, we could have put the game away earlier.”

Maplesville turned the ball over seven times but racked up 529 total yards of offense.

The running back tandem of Chris Bailey and Hunter McCay did much of the damage, and the passing game with quarterback Matt Hamner was both efficient and explosive.

Bailey spun away from the TCC defense and scored from 6 yards out on Maplesville’s first possession, and McCay matched that with an 11-yard touchdown run on the next possession.

Maplesville faked the extra point attempt after the first score, and Bailey threw to Darrell Goodwin for two points.

So, the score was 15-0 when TCC’s dynamic quarterback Cameron Duncan took the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown.

The extra point made it 15-7, but that’s as close as the visitors would get.

McCay scored two more times—from 22 yards and 20 yards—in the first half.

Casey Atchison added one of the extra points, and the score was 28-7 Maplesville at halftime.

TCC (6-5) struck first in the second half on a 13-yard Duncan run, but the Tigers wouldn’t score again.

Bailey, Hamner and Cameron Morrow all had TD runs for Maplesville in the fourth quarter, and Atchison was good on all the points after.

“Our offensive line, I thought, took over in the fourth quarter,” Hubbert said.

Bailey rushed 16 times for 175 yards, and McCay carried the football 16 times for 150 yards. Bailey also had 44 receiving yards and 22 yards on an interception return.

Hamner completed 10 passes in 13 attempts for 153 yards. Dustin Stephens caught three of those passes, for 85 yards.

Atchison led the defensive effort with 13 tackles.