ORANGE BEACH — Orange Beach opened their season with a 34-14 victory over Elberta on Friday night.

The game served as the Makos’ first matchup played at the school's new athletic complex located adjacent to the Orange Beach Middle/High School campus. Mako fans packed the house for the occasion.

Despite the complex not being complete just yet, Makos head coach Wade Waldrop said the team will always be remembered as the team that won the first game on the new home turf.

“To come in to see a packed stadium at 7:45 in this facility that’s not completely done yet, but to get here and to play, our administration pushing the construction company to get it here, it’s huge for our kids,” Waldrop said. “It means so much for them, so much for them to play here, and we’re excited to build a future here.”

BATTLE IN A PACKED HOUSE

Orange Beach received the ball to kick things off. The Makos struck first with a rushing touchdown from Blake Brunick. Elberta responded with an 8-yard touchdown pass to receiver Conner Frank. In a quick turn of events, the Warriors took a slight 8-7 lead by succeeding a 2-point conversion attempt to complete their drive.

Before Orange Beach could respond, the Makos fumbled possession of the ball, which was recovered by Elberta’s defense, though the Warriors could not score before the first quarter ended.

With around six minutes to go in the second quarter, Elberta’s offense turned the ball over on downs. Orange Beach’s Brennan Joullian then exploded with an 88-yard rushing touchdown to give the Makos a 14-8 lead, but Elberta would tie the game with a massive 82-yard touchdown pass, this time unsuccessfully completing a 2-point conversion that would have given them the lead, leaving it at 14-14.

With under a minute to go in the second quarter, Makos receiver Lee Steele caught a 21-yard touchdown pass but failed to get their own 2-point conversion, giving Orange Beach a 20-14 lead at halftime.

After a scoreless third quarter, the Makos increased their lead in the fourth quarter with a short rushing touchdown from Adrian Billups, who previously played for Elberta before transferring to Orange Beach.

With Elberta trying to make something happen down 26-14, the Makos intercepted the ball with a catch from Brunick. With seven minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Brunick caught a 36-yard touchdown to make it 34-14. The Warriors would lose possession of the ball again through a fumble, sealing the Makos’ victory during opening weekend of 4A Region 1 play.

Waldrop said the second half was about “just kind of locking in and getting our eyes where they’re supposed to be.”

Joel Williams debuted as Elberta's head coach with this season opener, which Waldrop told Williams postgame caused him to do something he hasn't done in his 25 years of coaching experience.

“I’ve never had to prepare for a game blind, and we went into this completely blind. Had no film, nothing on what they do. We had to guess,” Waldrop said. “Our defensive coaches did a great job anticipating what was coming and had a plan for our guys. We got caught once or twice with some gimmicks, but I told our kids they’ll be better prepared as we move forward because we’ll have film on who we are playing, but you know, it’s a hard fought game and just proud of our guys.”

The Warriors' coach said he thinks they did a lot of really good things on both sides of the ball that he was proud of, but what disappoints him and why he thinks they lost is not because of any actual play.

“I think we lost the football game because of hydration, and I think that could be a valuable lesson, especially during all these warm weather games that played pretty good, but we have learned that we just didn’t hydrate like we need to,” Williams said.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Makos (1-0) hit the road to play at Citronelle on Friday, Aug. 29.

“You just have to come back to work Monday. Now, it’s on,” Waldrop said. “You’re kind of over that first hump of playing here, first hump of playing a game. We lost our jamboree game last week; didn’t get to play that. The team backed out late, so this is kind of like our jamboree, so we’ve got to make some drastic improvements this week to get ready for Citronelle."

Despite the loss, Williams pointed out the youth on Elberta’s roster and said he thinks there are a lot of good things to build on moving forward.

“We're young,” Williams said. “Like on offense, we start a ninth grader, three sophomores, a couple of juniors. We’re a really, really young football team, so a lot of good things that we’re going to keep building on.”

Next up for the Warriors (0-1), they begin their home slate for the season by hosting Robertsdale on Thursday, Aug. 28.