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DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) — Decatur found itself in an instant classic on Thursday night in their game against Cullman. Finally, in the third overtime, Ellis Dickman found Dayton Swoopes in the corner of the endzone to give the Red Raiders the 39-36 win to stay undefeated. For starting the season 4-0 for the first time since 2010, Decatur is the Week Three Tyler Mann Team of the Week!

“I think it says a lot about their resilience and ability to overcome a lot of adversity. I’m really proud of the way their character showed throughout the game. I thought they stayed poised through the whole situation so I was proud of that,” Decatur Head Coach Jere Adcock said.

“I knew our defense would hold up sooner or later, they played a heck of a game. A sigh of relief for sure. We’ve run it in practice against our defense and it worked and if it works against our defense, it’s going to work against other teams,” added Ellis Dickman, a senior quarterback for the team.

“Stressful after a while. We missed one kick and then he made the next one so we just kept fighting the whole time it just really felt great when he scored that last touchdown,” said Mylon Miller, a senior linebacker. “It means a lot because we came from 2-8 twice and then 4-7 so now being 4-0, we just have to keep going, fighting as hard as we can because a lot of people didn’t think we could.”

“We were used to that and we kind of gone through some dry spells here so this is good. These kids have worked for it, the coaching staff definitely pushed them for this and put that goal out in front of them so we’re excited about being right here where we are right now. These seniors have got a lot of playing time under their belt and they’ve got a lot of scars because of it. I think that’s the biggest thing just seeing them step up and take charge. Yesterday’s successes are today’s failures. We’ve got to refocus, get back to work, remember what got us here. We talk to them a lot about climbing a tree. How hard it is to get up to the top of that tree and how easy it is to fall out,” Adcock added.

Decatur will be back in action this Friday, Sept. 16, hosting Hazel Green.