In a night about celebrations, the Escambia County Blue Devils were able to celebrate their homecoming game with a 33-0 victory over the Monroe County Tigers on Friday night at Herbert Barnes Stadium in Atmore.

The Blue Devils (4-5, 3-4) overcame a slow start in the first quarter to put on an aerial display with Blue Devils sophomore quarterback Chris Johnson connecting on four touchdown passes in the win Johnson connected with receivers for touchdowns of 26, 14, 96 and 71 yards in leading his team to a huge region win.

Coming into the game, the Blue Devils were hanging their hats on finishing the season strong after being eliminated from the playoff hunt last week.

Playing with pride and character were the things that Blue Devils head coach Mark Heaton wanted to see from his team as they began to close out the season.

““I’m just proud of the way our guys played,” Heaton said. “They came out and played hard and executed plays. We still left some big plays on the field, but going into the last game of the year to finish 5-5 this will be a push towards that.”

Early in the match up with the Tigers, it seemed as if it would be a tight contest with Monroe County eating up several minutes of the clock on their first drive.

After the Blue Devils forced a punt, the Tigers gave up a facemask, but held strong to make ECHS give them the ball right back on a punt.

The Blue Devils made the Tigers next possession short as quarterback Tytus Howard threw an interception straight into the arms of linebacker Domineque Hubert who returned it to the Tigers’ 30.

Johnson then made quick work on the Blue Devils’ possesion as he hit wide receiver Carl Staples on the second play with a 26-yard pass to put the Blue Devils up 7-0.

Following another three and out by the Tigers, the Blue Devils got the ball back on the Tigers’ 35 and scored in four plays with Johnson hitting wide receiver Malcolm English on a 14-yard slant pattern for another ECHS touchdown.

The Blue Devils’ defense stepped up and held the Tigers to another three and out and punted the ball to pin the Blue Devils’ deep int their own territory.

Johnson put together another quick drive as on the first play he hit receiver Derrick Williams for a 96-yard touchdown to give ECHS a 20-0 lead after a failed extra point taking the teams into halftime.

Following halftime, the Blue Devils picked up where they left off as Johnson again hit Staples this time for a 71-yard touchdown to give the Blue Devils a 27-0.

Of Johnson’s play, Heaton said that his quarterback still has work to do, but has taken on the leadership of the offense.

“He did a good job,” he said. “We still aren’t hitting our reads like I want us to, but Chris has done a good of taking the offense on his shoulders and being able to execute big plays.”

The two teams then traded punts back-and-forth as the game moved into the fourth quarter.

Holding a strong lead, the Blue Devils began to put younger players, but still found a way to score as running back Ladereis Payne took a handoff from Johnson and turned into a 24-yard scamper to the endzone to put ECHS up 33-0 where the score would remain as the clock hit zero.

Being able to play younger players was a huge step towards building for next year, Heaton said.

“It’s big and what I enjoy about is our guys executed and perfomed well,” he said. “They played hard at this caliber of a game.”

The Blue Devils take on the Baldwin County Tigers next Friday at home. Kick off is at 7 p.m.