Brannon King

For the FCT

For the second consecutive week the Red Bay Tigers shutout a rival and relied on good blocking and a strong running game to pick up a victory.

Red Bay, coming off a 56-0 win over Phil Campbell, routed Belmont 40-0 Friday night in front of a large crowd at Fred Bostick Jr. Memorial Stadium. The win moves Red Bay’s record to 3-2 halfway through the regular season.

The Tigers came out roaring in the first quarter taking a 8-0 lead on the first drive of the game. Running back Austin Childers took a handoff on the second play of the game and raced 54 yards for what looked like a score but a holding penalty brought it back.

A couple of Matt Senkbeil runs moved the ball into Belmont Cardinal territory and three plays later, Childers found the endzone again, this time from 22 yards out with no flags.  Tyler Reach ran in the try for two and Red Bay had the early advantage and never gave it up.

The Red Bay defense then held the Cardinals on three straight plays giving the ball right back to the Tigers. Tyler Reach would score the next TD on a run from 8 yards out finishing the 8-play drive that began on the Tigers’ own 12-yard-line.  The following try for two failed.

Two plays later, the Red Bay defense made noise again as Dustin Holland recovered a Belmont fumble.  The Red Bay offense only needed two plays of their own to score again. Childers scored his second of three touchdowns on a 25-yard run. Quarterback Troy Borden ran in the 2-point conversion giving the Tigers a 22-0 lead with 1:35 to go in the first quarter.

Red Bay gained 173 yards rushing in the opening quarter while Belmont managed only 12 total yards of offense in the first quarter.

Belmont opened the second quarter with some promise. The drive contained a 14-yard run by quarterback Luke Alexander and a couple of pass completions to Lorenzo Braxton. However, Braxton couldn’t maintain possession of the second completion and Red Bay’s Taylor Weclowski fell on the fumble.

Both offenses traded punts and penalties for the remainder of the half. Red Bay’s Tyler Reach did pick off a pass by the Cardinals with 2:18 left to go until the break.

Belmont had two fumbles and two interceptions on the night while Red Bay did not commit any turnovers during the game.

Red Bay’s passing game got the Tigers back on the board when Troy Borden found Nick Thorn for a 40-yard TD pass. The try for two, which was moved back due to a Red Bay penalty after the score, was no good but the Tigers led 28-0 with 3:04 left in the third quarter.  The scoring drive was set up by Matt Senkbeil’s interception of a Belmont pass.

The Cardinals showed that they weren’t giving up as Barry Rogers faked a punt and found Brett Williams with a nice throw and catch to keep a late third quarter drive alive. Later, a penalty for intentional grounding was too much to overcome and the drive stalled in Red Bay territory.

Red Bay finished the game strong as they scored on each of their final two drives of the night. The first TD came on a 44-yard run by Austin Childers. The final score came on a 9-yard touchdown run, this time by Tate Ozbirn making the final score, 40-0.

“If we can run the football and impose our will at the line of scrimmage, we are going to be very, very successful,” Red Bay coach John Ritter said after the game.

Ritter also knows how much a win over the rival from Mississippi means.

“I’ve heard all week about Belmont and what type game this was and it lived up to the hype. This was a hard-hitting type of game. Very, very fun. Our kids responded, had a great week of practice and came out really focused and executed the game plan to perfection.”

Red Bay will enter back into region play for their next game as they host Sheffield.