In a largely defensive battle, the Fort Dale Eagles hosted regional rival Hooper Academy Friday night and came away with a shutout, 20-0.

"Winning is always a good thing, and we shut them out," Coach James Sampley said. "Defensively we played well and the special teams played well but we just weren't moving the ball consistently on offense."

The only scoring of the night came in the second quarter.

Tim James capped a 42-yard drive for the first score with a two-yard run. Eric Hicks put the ball through the uprights to give the Eagles seven. James added another six when he broke a 70-yard run into the end zone with 2:20 left in the half.

The last touchdown came from a quarterback keeper as David Moore ran in from three yards out with just 40 seconds left in the half. The kick failed but the Eagles had the lead 20-0.

Hooper tried to move the ball before the intermission but Taylor Hawsey intercepted a pass to stop them with just seven seconds left.

Neither team was able to move the ball in the second half with one exception as the Hooper Colts almost mustered a score on the Eagle's third-group defense at the end of the third quarter. A wild snap caused a Hooper fumble on the Eagle's 10-yard line which was picked up by Cory Ausderau on the Eagle's 25.

The last play of the game saw Hooper desperately trying to get on the board with two second remaining. A long pass down the line from Hooper QB Derek Jones hit Trey Faulkner and he broke some yardage. He dodged several tackles until he ran into Kyle Dorriety on the Eagle's 17-yard line who saved the score.

Sampley kept starting quarterback David Moore in until the middle of the fourth quarter.

"David needs experience," he said. "Though we have a lot of older players this year they just don't have enough experience. We almost penalized ourselves to death tonight."

"We're going to work on blocking this coming week," he said. "We're playing hard but I'm just not sure that we're playing smart. We've got two teams in the next two weeks that are a lot better than these guys."

Time James was the powerhouse during the first half. In 16 carries he amassed 135 yards and two touchdowns. Peter McGowin had the next highest yardage with 27 yards in six carries.

David Moore completed seven of 13 passes for 45 yards and had one touchdown. The Eagle's racked up 284 total yards.

Hooper was only able to net 29 yards on the ground against FDA. They were a little more successful in the air completing eight of 22 for 100 yards.

Dalton Gregory led the defense with nine tackles. Mike Jones, John Allen Bates and Taylor Hawsey each came up with an interception. Cory Ausderau, Peter McGowin and Caleb Blackburn each had a fumble recovery.

Next week the Eagles will make the long drive down to Mobile Christian for another area competition.