By Brandon Sumrall | Special to the Advertiser

For most High School sports teams, playing an opponent from a higher classification would point to an uphill, tough battle. For Maplesville, it was business as usual as the Red Devils thumped the Class 3A American Christian Patriots, 54-0.

Maplesville wasted little time in putting their star running back to work, and as usual he would not disappoint and on the fifth play from scrimmage a handoff to Terence Dunlap would go for a twenty-four yard touchdown run to put the Red Devils on the board with a 7-0 lead.

A Patriots three and out would set up the second possession of the night for the Red Devils and on a first and ten from their own thirty-one quarterback Thomas Schooner connected with Nathaniel Watson for a sixty-eight yard touchdown to make the score 13-0 midway through the first quarter.

A failed forth down attempt by the Patriots near midfield turned the ball over to the Red Devils where two plays later, Dunlap picked up his second TD on the night with a thirty-five yard touchdown carry to make the Maplesville lead, 19-0.

The Red Devils made it four-or-four on the night with another touchdown drive as Dunlap again found the end zone, this time from eighty-six yards out to give Maplesville a 27-0 lead.

Schoener joined the Red Devil touchdown committee on the next Maplesville possession with an eleven yard touchdown run and with just 1:54 to play in the first half Dunlap made the Red Devils six-for-six on scoring drives in the first half with an eighty yard touchdown run to send the game to the halftime break with Maplesville leading 41-0.

The only big play for the Patriots in the game came on a first and ten at their own forty-one when Eli Wilson found Brook Cormier across the middle but as he crossed into the Red Devil red zone he was stripped of the ball and it was recovered by Maplesville.

One play later, Dunlap struck again, this time from ninety yards out to put the Red Devils up 48-0.

With 6:15 to play in the game, Ken Mims dealt the final blow to the Patriots with a two yard touchdown carry to bring the game it its final score of 54-0.

Dunlap finished the game with 267 yards on 12 carries with four touchdowns rushing as well as one reception for eighty-six yards and a touchdown.

The Red Devils quest for a third consecutive state championship will continue next Friday night as they host Talladega County Central.

“We have to come back and continue to work hard,” said Maplesville head Coach Brent Hubbert. “It’s and odd shaped ball and it can bounce in a lot of different ways. We just have to continue to work and give it everything that we have. Whether you win or lose, if you give it all that you have, you’ll be successful.”