Flowers leads Daleville past Slocomb

DALEVILLE — Instability at the top has reared its ugly head at Daleville for the past few years.

But it looks like the Warhawks have something going with first-year head coach Mike Dean.

Senior quarterback Tevin Flowers threw for 244 yards and ran for 98 as the Warhawks beat Slocomb Friday 37-21, making them the only unbeaten left in Class 3A, Region 2.

Flowers, who started as a freshman for the Warhawks, is on his third head coach. He made big play after big play, helping Daleville (5-1, 4-0 region) score the last 20 points after Slocomb went ahead 21-17 late in the third.

“That is humongous,” said Dean, whose players dumped a cooler of water on him after the game in celebration.

“He has been unbelievable. Without Tevin, we wouldn’t have done what we did tonight.”

Slocomb (4-2, 3-1) took a shot earlier this week when star running back Jermaine “Juicy” Williams sprained his ankle in practice. Williams, a senior who ran for 345 yards last week against Houston Academy, was limited to 97 yards on 10 carries.

“Team morale was down,” Slocomb head coach Jeff Mitchell said. “(His ankle) is real tender. I hope he’s full speed next week.”

The Red Tops went up 21-17 with 4:50 left in the third when quarterback Will Harper hit a wide open Scottie Burdeshaw in stride on a wheel route to the left as the play went for a 70-yard touchdown.

That’s when Flowers took over. The senior accounted for all of Daleville’s 57 yards on the next drive, scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run to put Daleville back on top.

On Slocomb’s next drive, Joe Beckham intercepted his second pass of the game, setting up James Tanner’s 1-yard touchdown run. Tanner added another 1-yard score with 4:22 left to seal the win.

Daleville forced four Slocomb turnovers, including a key interception by Alex Montgomery deep in Warhawk territory early in the second half.

“They live and die on the big play and they had several of them,” Mitchell said. “They took it to us and hit us in the mouth.

“I thought for a minute we were going to hit back, but we sure didn’t. We folded our tents.”

Daleville went up early in the first quarter, taking advantage of a Slocomb fumble on the first play of the game. Tanner scored from 3 yards out. Slocomb responded on a 17-yard scoring pass from Harper to Jacobe Reynolds, but the extra point was missed.

Flowers hit Will Knight for a 55-yard touchdown in the second, and Slocomb responded and tied the game on Burdeshaw’s 5-yard touchdown run and 2-point conversion pass play from Harper to Burdeshaw. Harper threw for 118 yards on the night.

Daleville’s Travis Basso kicked a 33-yard field goal to give the Warhawks a 17-14 halftime lead.

While players celebrated a potential region title, Dean warned of a letdown, since the Warhawks lost last week to a winless Rehobeth squad.

“We don’t know how to win yet,” Dean said. “It showed last week and for parts of the game showed today. We can’t worry about who we play next week, we’ve got to worry about getting better.”