Casey Galloway runs the ball in Friday night’s game against Phillips. Photo by Bart Moss.

By Brannon King

For the FCT

Experience plays a big role in achieving success on the football field and it showed Friday night as the Phillips Bears (5-1) defeated the Phil Campbell Bobcats (2-4) by a score of 24-0 in Bear Creek.

Led by seniors Austin Campbell and Tyler Crumpton, along with junior Josef Bates, the Bears made the necessary plays at the right time to defeat the young Phil Campbell squad who continues to grow and learn.

The two teams played to a scoreless first quarter before the Bears took control of the game, outscoring the Bobcats 16-0 in the second quarter.

Phil Campbell’s offense managed to keep the ball for 16 plays in the first quarter but was unable to score.

“Offensively, we just couldn’t put it in the end zone. We had two really good drives in the first half and didn’t finish them,” Phil Campbell head coach Ryan Swinney said after the game.

“We just put ourselves in bad positions after we got inside the 20.  We were good from 20 to 20 it seemed like, but inside the red zone we just struggled. Defensively, we played well.”

Bobcat quarterback Peyton Thomas was able to find completions to Joe Hardy and Tristan Godsey in the first quarter while Casey Galloway and Godsey ran the ball for Phil Campbell. Hardy also stopped an early Phillips drive with an interception.

It was in the second quarter when the Bears took over. On the first play, Josef Bates went 20 yards for a TD run. Tyler Crumpton ran in the try for two giving the Bears the 8-0 lead.

On the following Phil Campbell drive, mistakes hurt the Bobcats.  Bates had a sack on the first play and later, a kicking game error on a Phil Campbell punt deep in Bobcat territory set the Bears up with outstanding field position.

It only took Phillips two plays to find the end zone again. Austin Campbell found Tyler Crumpton for a 9-yard touchdown pass, which was followed by a Crumpton run for the two-point-conversion.

Josh Hyde of Phillips later stopped a Phil Campbell drive with an interception on a fourth down pass in Bears’ territory.

Matthew Stancil of Phil Campbell answered with a sack just before the half to help stop the Bears.

Phil Campbell’s Jordan Sharpston added an early third quarter fumble recovery to help the Bobcats. However, after a quick three-and-out by the Phil Campbell offense, Josef Bates scored on a 25-yard TD run one play after Tyler Crumpton had a big gain of his own.  Crumpton added the try for two to make the score 24-0.

The Bobcats will return to Franklin County action this week with a game at Tharptown.

“That’s a region game and that’s what we talked about before the year,” Swinney said. “We want to try to make the playoffs. To do that, we have to beat Tharptown and we have to win the next week, but Tharptown’s first.

If we can get that region game, maybe it sets us up for good, positive things down the road. I’m real happy with the effort tonight.”

After the game with Tharptown, Phil Campbell will face region opponents Cherokee and Sulligent.