By DAVID WOOD, for The Democrat

“There is a link for each one of you, one link for our coaching staff, and one for our managers … as a chain we’re unbreakable. That’s our team,” Randy Minniear said.

His words echoed throughout the concrete locker room, only accompanied by the sharp clink of the steel chain in his hands.

To the varsity football head coach, each individual link is meant to represent one member of the Brown County football program. When interlocked and undivided, they have no weak link.

That evening, the Eagles returned to the gridiron against Edinburgh for their first game of the 2018 season.

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Minniear’s words proved to be true. Showcasing excellence on both sides of the ball, Brown County nearly shut out Edgewood, 58-8.

“Overall I think we’ve worked very hard since June 4, not even counting off-season lifting, and these kids have responded tonight. Their effort was first class, really first class,” he said.

“We’ve got to get better as we go on, but we saw a lot of good things.”

Noah Carter, captain and starting quarterback for the Eagles, was charged with carrying the team chain onto the field.

Holding up his end, he earned six touchdowns over the course of the night between five passes and one run.

“I felt like we did pretty well. As a team we played together, we gang-tackled on defense,” Carter said.

“We had some missed opportunities, some dropped balls and I made some bad passes. We missed a few blocks too, but that’s just something we can build off of and get better at.”

The 16-year-old junior kept his cool following the blowout victory. Not taking the win for granted, he believed Edinburgh had the ability to come back at any point despite the score deficit.

“We beat them last year and we were expecting to win, but you never know. They could have come back. … You just never know; we could have lost that game,” Carter said.

Freshman Kody Walsh put up a stellar performance of his own considering it was his varsity debut.

Walsh carried a sizeable portion of the Eagles’ ground game and managed a TD of his own in the third quarter.

“It feels really good. I was really nervous at first, but, once I got through that first quarter the nerves went away and I was just happy with my team,” he said.

“I feel like I did pretty good, but I’m not satisfied. I want to get better every day, every week, and every Friday night.”

Walsh turned his praise toward his offensive line and how they allowed him and other running backs to shine.

“I think our line did very well today. They made great holes for the running backs to run through and it made us look good.”

In the post-game huddle, Minniear congratulated the team and their efforts thus far. They’ll have until 10:15 a.m. Sunday to celebrate and take it easy, but after that, they’re back to the grind, he said.

“That’s one game on our quest to go all the way. We said it back in June: We’re going after it this year; we’re going after a championship,” Minniear said.

“We have one under out belt. Now we have to regroup, take care of our bumps and bruises, and get ourselves rested up over the weekend.”