BREWTON, Ala. — T.R. Miller and W.S. Neal both won region games on Friday, Oct. 23, setting up a rivalry game next week between two teams with matching 5-1 records in region play. The Tigers shut out Wilcox Central 35-0 in Brewton, and across Murder Creek in East Brewton, the Eagles held off Flomaton 33-27.
The two Escambia County neighbors meet next Friday, Oct. 30, at Brewton Municipal Stadium in their annual “Battle of Murder Creek.” Kickoff is set for 7 p.m., and gates open at 5 p.m.
The wins came two weeks after Hurricane Isaias left heavy damage across Escambia County, closed schools for more than a week and pushed parts of the local football schedule around. Both programs have kept winning since returning to the field.
T.R. Miller 35, Wilcox Central 0
T.R. Miller took control early and never let Wilcox Central reach the end zone. The Tigers scored four touchdowns in the first half and led 28-0 at the break.
Cade Davenport, Anteion Dees and Kaden McQueen, who scored twice, accounted for the first-half touchdowns. Kevin Barrgan made all four extra-point kicks.
With the game in hand, T.R. Miller gave younger players time on the field in the second half. The Tigers’ defense kept the shutout intact, and Bryan Wesley Jr. scored the only touchdown of the second half. Barrgan’s kick made the final 35-0.
The win improved T.R. Miller to 7-2 overall and 5-1 in region play.
A busy week for the Tigers
Friday’s game was T.R. Miller’s second in five days. On Monday, Oct. 19, the Tigers won 24-21 at Jackson on a field goal as time expired. That game was originally set for Friday, Oct. 16, but moved to Monday after Isaias shut down Brewton City Schools and Escambia County Schools. Jackson had entered that game 5-0 in Class 3A, Region 1 play.
Jackson rebounded Friday with a 71-14 win over Excel and is 6-1 in region play.
The storm hit T.R. Miller’s program hard. Head coach Ronnie Cottrell said before the Jackson game that two of his players’ families had lost their homes, and that coaches struggled to reach players after schools closed. “There was a lot of devastation in our town. And we’re a very small community, but we’re a very close community,” Cottrell said in our earlier coverage of the team’s return.
Cottrell, a T.R. Miller graduate and former Tigers player, took over as head coach and athletic director in April 2025, succeeding Hall of Fame coach Brent Hubbert. He spent nine seasons on Bobby Bowden’s staff at Florida State, where he was part of the 1993 national championship team, and later coached at Alabama. At the high school level, he won state titles at Godby High in Tallahassee, Fla., in 2012 and at Mobile Christian in 2023.
About Wilcox Central
Wilcox Central is based in Camden, the seat of Wilcox County in west-central Alabama. The Jaguars also visited Escambia County the week before, when they played at Flomaton in a game moved up to a 5 p.m. kickoff so the Camden visitors could get home before dark on storm-damaged roads.
W.S. Neal 33, Flomaton 27
W.S. Neal survived a back-and-forth fourth quarter to beat Flomaton 33-27 in East Brewton.
Flomaton scored first, late in the first quarter. The Eagles answered with two touchdowns and a field goal before halftime to take a 17-7 lead into the locker room.
W.S. Neal added 9 points in the third quarter on a touchdown with an extra point and a safety, and led 26-14 going into the fourth quarter.
The final period swung back and forth. Flomaton scored two touchdowns and converted one extra point to reach 27 points. W.S. Neal answered with a touchdown and an extra point, and that held up for the 33-27 final.
The Eagles improved to 6-3 overall and 5-1 in region play. Flomaton plays at Satsuma next week.
The Eagles’ path to 5-1
W.S. Neal was 3-2 at midseason after a 53-28 homecoming win over B.C. Rain on Sept. 25. In that game, the Eagles trailed 28-25 at halftime and then outscored the visitors from Mobile 28-0 after the break.
By the week Isaias struck, W.S. Neal and T.R. Miller were tied for third place in the region at 3-1. W.S. Neal’s Oct. 16 game at Opp stayed on its original Friday date after county officials checked the roads, and Escambia County Superintendent Michele Collier said the team would travel with a police escort. Collier had estimated about $6 million in storm damage across the county school system, with W.S. Neal Middle School and Pollard-McCall among the hardest-hit campuses.
The Battle of Murder Creek
The T.R. Miller-W.S. Neal game is one of the best-known high school rivalries in Alabama. The two schools sit about two miles apart, separated by Murder Creek, with T.R. Miller in Brewton and W.S. Neal in East Brewton. Next Friday, the Eagles and their fans will cross the bridge into Brewton.
The rivalry is also a contest between two school systems. T.R. Miller is part of Brewton City Schools, and W.S. Neal is part of the Escambia County school system.
T.R. Miller fielded its first football team in the fall of 1926, when it was the only high school in town, according to the Alabama High School Football Historical Society. In 1946, after a debate over where to put a new school, the community decided to build it in East Brewton. That school became W.S. Neal, and the rivalry grew from there. The Eagles wear Columbia blue and gold, and the Tigers wear red and black.
Brewton sits at the fork of Burnt Corn Creek and Murder Creek, a tributary of the Conecuh River. The creek’s name comes from the killing of a party of travelers on their way to Pensacola in the late 1700s, an account recorded in Albert James Pickett’s 1851 history of Alabama.
Tradition on both sides
T.R. Miller has one of the state’s most accomplished football programs, with state championships in 1984, 1991, 1994, 2000 and 2002. The school is named for Thomas Richard Miller, a local timber businessman who helped pay for the original building. Its best-known alumni include Walter Lewis, who became the first Black starting quarterback at the University of Alabama.
W.S. Neal has its own loyal following in East Brewton, where homecoming is a community-wide event with an alumni gathering, a pep rally open to the public and a parade of student-built floats down Forrest Avenue.
What’s at stake
Both teams enter the game 5-1 in region play. Jackson, which lost to T.R. Miller on Monday, is 6-1 after beating Excel. AHSAA playoff berths and seeding are based on final region standings, and in Classes 1A through 5A the top four teams from each region qualify for the playoffs. Higher seeds host first-round games.
The AHSAA posts official region standings and tiebreaker results once each week’s games are final.
T.R. Miller beat Flomaton 28-14 earlier this season. In that game, senior Marquice English ran for a touchdown, returned a punt for a score and intercepted a pass.
If you go: Battle of Murder Creek
- Who: W.S. Neal Eagles (6-3, 5-1 region) at T.R. Miller Tigers (7-2, 5-1 region)
- When: Friday, Oct. 30. Gates open at 5 p.m., and kickoff is at 7 p.m.
- Where: Brewton Municipal Stadium, Brewton
- Tip: Rivalry games in Brewton tend to fill the stands well before kickoff, so plan to arrive early. Debris cleanup is still underway in parts of Escambia County, so allow extra travel time and watch for work crews on rural roads.
Ticket details and any schedule updates are usually posted by the schools’ athletic departments and official social media pages ahead of game day.
Around the area Friday
- Escambia County beat Opp 21-20.
- Jackson beat Excel 71-14. Tristan Love ran for more than 200 yards and four touchdowns.
- Thomasville beat Hillcrest-Evergreen 48-21.
- Leroy beat Washington County 26-18.