Giles County deals Eagles first loss

PULASKI -- "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

That's the title of a western film stating Clint Eastwood, but it describes well Shelbyville Central's disappointing 51-3 loss at Giles County Friday night.

The Good is the Golden Eagles (3-1) have the opportunity to put this game behind them and bounce back against Columbia in a key District 8-AAA game Friday night.

The Bad is Shelbyville's performance throughout the game on both sides of the ball against the Bobcats, the state 3rd ranked team in Class 4A.

The Ugly is the inexcusable effort of the Golden Eagles after falling behind in the first half.

"Giles County is a very good football team and they were the better team by far," Eagle coach Jason Hardy said. "Unfortunately the final score doesn't dictate what kind of game it was.

"Our effort in the second half is the worse I've ever been a part of and I apologize to Shelbyville football fans for that. This is a big-time setback and now we've just got to bounce back and see what we're made of."

Despite the poor performance, this was the Golden Eagles' first loss of the season and Hardy isn't going to let it distract the momentum the program has gained over the first three games.

"We've just got to respond and look at the positives and get rid of the negatives," Hardy said. "We've had some success to start the season and it's easy to go hard when you're ahead. We've got to do a much better job of handling any adversity we made have. Tonight when it was evident we were out of the game, we just threw the towel in.

"I'm not going to settle for that and I don't expect this team to settle for that either."

Shelbyville's points came off the foot of Angel Jarquin, who cashed in on a 32-yard field goal.

After swapping field goals on each team's first offensive possession, the Bobcats closed out the first quarter with a pair of touchdowns, a 1-yard run by Tobias Houston and a 5-yard carry by quarterback Bo Wallace to go up 17-3.

Houston added a 2-yard TD run in the second quarter to increase the lead to 24-3 at halftime.

"We made some mistakes in the first half but settled down a little and were able to stay within striking distance," Hardy said. "We got the ball to start the second half and if we can score we're back in the game," Hardy said.

Giles County's defense held the Eagles to a three-and-out, then put together a 15-play drive capped off by a 3-yard TD run by Wallace.

The point after was wide right leaving the score 30-3.

The Bobcats added another touchdown when Zach Bailey hauled in a 25-yard pass form Wallace.

Arnoldo Valdivezo's fourth extra point of the game gave Giles County a 37-3 advantage after three quarters.

The winners tacked on a pair of late touchdowns, a 51-yard run by Dequon Nelson and a 16-yard carry by Cameron Ford.

"There is no excuse for our lack of effort in the second half," Hardy said. "We've just got to learn from this and put this one behind us. This is just one game in a long season."

The Bobcats racked up 519 yards of total offense against Shelbyville's defense, which had only allowed an average of 210 yards in the first three games.

Wallace passed for 244 yards and rushed for 30. Houston led the way on the ground with 141 yards on 24 carries.

The Eagles rushed for 39 yards and added 113 in the air. Quarterback Tre Stewart connected on 5-of-8 passes for 71 yards while sophomore Luke Faulk was 4-of-8 for 42 yards.

Shelbyville plays at Columbia Friday at 7 in a battle of undefeated teams in district play.