The Maplesville Red Devils defeated the Holy Spirit Saints in shootout fashion with a 56-21 senior night victory on Oct. 19.

Both teams took to the air early in the game and looked to utilize their passing attack.

“We knew that they were going to come out and throw the ball, so we wanted to come out and match it,” Maplesville quarterback Jackson Abbott said.

Abbott established a rhythm early on and found success getting the ball out of his hands quickly on slant passes.

“They play with one inside linebacker and two outside linebackers, so we felt like they couldn’t cover the slot receiver.”

He spread the ball around and got several Maplesville receivers involved in the game plan.

Jakavian Mckenzie led the way with four catches, while Kalyn Hardy had two receptions and Latrell Wilson and Tristen Thetford each had one.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that can catch the ball,” Abbott said. “We have very few drops even in practice.”

Mckenzie caught a pair of touchdowns from Abbott and also intercepted a pass on the defensive side of the ball.

Ryan Morrow opened the Maplesville scoring with touchdown runs of 35 and 20 yards to put the Red Devils up 14-0.

Christin Brown also ran for two touchdowns, as the Red Devils led 35-14 at the end of the first quarter.

“As a quarterback, it takes a lot of pressure off when you have two guys that can break it at any point,” Abbott said.

Caleb Hobbs took over at quarterback, and several reserve players began entering the game midway through the second quarter.

Hobbs and Wilson ran for touchdowns of 12 and 67 yards respectively to extend Maplesville’s lead to 56-21 at halftime.

That would also be the game’s final score with a running clock in the second half.

The main second half highlight was an interception on a deep ball by Hardy.

With the win, Maplesville improves to an overall record of 6-1 and 4-1 in Region 3-1A.