By Jacob Palmer

BRUCE- Water Valley’s season opener was delayed a week, but the 2020 high school football season for the Blue Devils has finally arrived.

Water Valley was scheduled to play at Baldwyn last week, but was canceled because of the entire Water Valley team having to quarantine. Water Valley is fielding a young team this year with only five seniors on the team.

The Blue Devils kicked off its season with a dominant 45-0 victory over Bruce on Friday.

Water Valley was slow out the gate, but quickly scored in the second quarter on a punt return to make it 7-0. The tale of the first half was points off turnovers. Water Valley forced 3 fumbles in the first half and scored 21 points off those turnovers. One being Freshman Jaden Morgan’s first touchdown at the High School level. Dre McCray recovered a fumble and sophomore CJ Telford scored on a 21 yard run a few plays later. Dre McCray also added a touchdown late in the second quarter to make the score 31-0.

In the Second half, Water Valley continued to stop the Bruce Trojans from driving down the field. The Water Valley defense forced 4 fumbles on the night and scored 28 points off those turnovers. Water Valley put the game away when Marion Morgan picked up the Bruce fumble for a 65 yard touchdown to make it 38-0. Freshman Jaden Morgan scored his second touchdown of the season to capitalize on a great performance tonight. Water Valley Coach Brad Embry was pleased with Jaden Morgan’s performance.

“Jaden came straight from eighth grade football, and we have a package for him, but at the end we got to run him in the real offense,” Embry said.  “When you get a chance in a game like this to get your ninth graders experience, because it was mostly ninth graders in skill positions I was proud of him. He is always asking questions and our starter right now, CJ Teleford, is a sophomore so we have really young guys.”

Embry was impressed with tonight’s win, but knows his team has some things to work on.

“All wins are good wins. That was a great win, especially with everything we have been through with having to quarantining and being so young,” Embry said.  “Bruce is an much improved team this year with some really good athletes on their team, and this was a good test for our boys. We will watch film and work on some things from tonight we will see good things and bad, and will fix them in practice.”

In the second half, Water Valley started to feel the effects of cramping from the heat, and being quarantined for two weeks.

“Without practicing in the spring and missing our jamboree every game and snap is critical for a team this young,” Embry said. “Plus, with everything going on it’s hard for kids to take care of themselves and make sure their bodies are properly hydrated and go out there to perform at a high level. It is not only the mental aspect of missing those weeks because of quarantine, but the physical aspect.”

Bruce falls to (0-3) this season. The Trojans travel to South Pontotoc next weekend. Water Valley (1-0) will host class 2A foe Calhoun City next Friday at Bobby H. Clark Field. They have split the matchup the last two years with Water Valley falling to Calhoun city 14-7 last year.