Austin Kitterman (10) jumps for an interception in the second half of Russellville’s win against Sparkman on Friday. Photo by Matt Wilson.

By Matt Wilson

For the FCT

The Golden Tigers pushed past 7A opponent Sparkman Friday night with a 42-24 win, extending their record to 5-0 overall, behind a stellar effort from sophomore quarterback Payton Nichols.

After a 10-play, 56-yard opening drive from the Senators that put them up 7-0, Russellville kicked things into gear both offensively and defensively.

Golden Tiger running back Deyon Hill opened the scoring when Nichols hit him on a short pass before he split the defense and took it 74 yards for the touchdown. A minute later Hill took a handoff 59 yards for the score and Russellville took the lead and never looked back.

At the midpoint of the second quarter, Nichols hit Reed Smith on a route that had him ending up 68 yards down the field and into the end zone.

The first half came to an odd and furious end as Sparkman closed the gap to 21-17 after a long drive with a little less than three minutes remaining in the second quarter. An interception thrown by Nichols gave the ball back to the Senators at the two-minute warning.

Just as it looked like Sparkman would grab the lead heading into the break, senior Shemar Hamilton snagged an interception in the back of the end zone and head coach Mark Heaton turned the hurry-up offense loose.

“He’s not a sophomore anymore,” Heaton said. “He’s our quarterback and we’ve talked about that with him—he’s our quarterback and that’s what we focus on.”

The Golden Tigers drove down inside the Sparkman 20 yard line and tacked on another touchdown to close the half as Nichols hit senior Colby Tompkins on a short curl route, which forced Tompkins to dive for the ball short of the goal line. But streaking past the diving Tompkins was Smith. Tompkins quickly tossed the ball over his shoulder to Smith who took it in for his second touchdown of the evening – a highlight-worthy play for sure and on a night when the game was being televised nationally by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

“He (Nichols) is doing well this season, we’re good right now,” Heaton said. “He needs to continue to grow if we’re going to be great. Our offensive line and our skill guys are contributing and that helps him to succeed.”

After a sparse third quarter the Russellville offense picked up the momentum again when Nichols scampered in for a 3-yard touchdown run before hitting Austin Bohannon on a 1-yard pass with three minutes left in the game.

Coming into the game against Sparkman, the Golden Tiger offense has looked balanced both on the field and in the stat books. Nichols went 17 of 29 for 228 yards and four touchdowns and added one rushing touchdown as well. That total puts him near the 1,000-yard mark in passing at the halfway point of the season.

Nichols is completing more than 60 percent of his passes and has 12 touchdown passes on the season. He has three rushing touchdowns on the season as well.

Staring at four of the last five games on the road—three of which are region games—Heaton said his team is getting better from one week to the next.

“We’re getting better as a team and we continue to grow from week to week,” Heaton said. “We’re doing it the right way and I’m happy about that.

“We’re committed to doing it the right way and we’re growing in character and letting God work and that is important to us as a staff,” Heaton added.

“We just have to keep getting better and keep that commitment to becoming great. If we do that, I think we can have success on down the road.”

Russellville visits a tough East Limestone team Oct. 3 in a 5A Region 8 matchup between two undefeated teams. East Limestone beat Athens 10-7 Sept. 26 and put up 65 points against Columbia. Russellville defeated Columbia 28-8 on Sept. 11.