CAPSHAW — East Limestone kept the score close for one half, but ultimately turnovers cost them as Madison Academy pulled away in the second half for a 42-20 win in the teams’ Class 5A, Region 8 opener.

East Limestone (1-1, 0-1) gave up a fumble and four interceptions with two of the picks returned for touchdowns. Madison Academy’s offense converted the fumble and another interception into touchdowns.

Madison Academy (2-1, 1-0), led by former Hartselle coach Bob Godsey in his first year at the helm, got three touchdown passes from Avery Seaton. Two of them went to Slate Rucker and the other to Clay Pitsinos. Josh Malone had a touchdown run. Jackson Hirschler and Kai Watson each returned interceptions for scores. Evan Craighead had two picks, and Jailen Holmes recovered a fumble.

“Each week we’re getting better,” Godsey said. “Each week we’re playing with a little bit more confidence. We’ve got an extremely young team. They want to be good. They want to play hard. They understand, like I do, the tradition of Madison Academy, but they understand we’ve got a young football team and is just going to have to be patient with it and get better each week.”

East Limestone had a chance to get on the scoreboard first when the offense started at the Madison Academy 43 after Swart’s blocked punt. However the Mustangs got the ball back on the first play of the series when Craighead picked off a pass.

Madison Academy’s offense scored four plays later on Seaton’s 25-yard pass to Rucker with about 31 seconds left in the first quarter. The Mustangs tacked on another touchdown on Seaton’s second scoring pass to Rucker, a 22 yarder, with 1:43 remaining in the half.

The game slipped further away from East Limestone within the first minute of the second half when two quick turnovers by the Indians were turned into Madison Academy points. Hirschler returned an interception 40 yards for a touchdown at the 11:26 mark. On the ensuing kickoff, Holmes recovered an Indians fumble. After a coach’s challenge to dispute the fumble call failed to overturn the play, Seaton connected on a 29-yard touchdown pass to Pitsinos on the following play with 11:06 to go in the third quarter to push the margin to 28-0.

Madison Academy will host Brewer in a region game on Friday. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.