Coppinville, Dauphin open up 2020 football seasons

Both the Coppinville Junior High and Dauphin Junior High football teams got the 2020 season off to a start last week.

On Aug. 27, Coppinville picked up a 12-0 win over Andalusia Middle School less than a week after new head coach Joel Kirkland was hired to replace former coach Jim Bedsole, who recently resigned before ever coaching a game for the Eagles.

Coppinville compiled 191 rushing yards for their new coach as Anthony Wynn led the way with 76 yards and a touchdown on just six rushing attempts. Quarterback Franklin Lodge also threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Eric Winters in the win.

The Eagle defense forced two turnovers with Winters also securing an interception on defense.

Kirkland becomes Coppinville’s new head coach after spending the previous six years as an assistant coach for Marc Sieving at Dauphin Junior High. Kirkland was already teaching at Coppinville when Sieving left to take the head coaching position at Elba.

“We had a change in coaching (at Dauphin) and I was already teaching over here so I felt like I could come here and do some good at the school,” Kirkland said.

In the past Kirkland has been an assistant coach at Coppinville and was also formerly a basketball coach at Coppinville. Kirkland said his primary goal with the Eagles is to mold the group into a solid team.

“We have some talent here so long as we get everybody to be on the same team and work together for one goal, whether that be a championship or just winning the majority of our games,” Kirkland said. “I just want our guys to learn to be a team and just really learn the basic parts of the offense and defense and I think we’ll be okay.”

Dauphin Junior High’s seventh and eighth grade teams faced off against Charles Henderson Middle School on Aug. 27 with the eighth grade playing a full game and the seventh grade playing one quarter.

The seventh grade picked up an 8-0 win in their quarter of play, while the eighth grade fell 8-0.

The Dauphin defense was led by Cody Kirk with seven tackles and one tackle-for-loss, while Conner Cruit had six tackles and three tackles=for-loss. Caden Boutwell had three tackles and an interception.

The Dauphin offense was led by Tomorris Green with eight carries for 70 yards. Andrew Purcell added 12 carries for 42 yards.

“The defense played extremely well and put us in really good positions to score and gave us multiple opportunities,” DJHS coach Brendan Dow said. “Looking at the film we felt really good about our ability to drive the ball down the field and had a few explosive plays, but ultimately we stalled out in the red zone each trip down there.

“That’s on me. We need to be able to finish drives and that is something that will be a major focus on us in terms of practice this week.”

Dauphin plays Admiral Moorer Middle School in Eufaula on Sept. 3, while Coppinville travels to Dothan on Sept. 3.