Red Bay Tigers’ Reed Holt added one touchdown for the Tigers Friday in the team’s shutout versus the Haleyville Lions.

By Brannon King for the FCT

The Red Bay Tigers used a powerful rushing attack and a stingy defense to dominate the Haleyville Lions in a 36-0 road win.

The victory extended Red Bay’s regular season winning streak going back to last year to 10 games and made the Tigers 2-0 so far this season. Haleyville (0-2) was the last team to beat the Tigers in regular season action, but junior running back Tate Ozbirn and senior quarterback Troy Borden led the way in making sure it wouldn’t happen again this year.

“This game meant a great deal to us. We just lined up and ran over them. The best team won the game tonight,” Red Bay head coach Michael Jackson said.

Ozbirn followed up last week’s 198 rushing yards against Colbert Heights with 192 yards and three touchdowns against the Lions. Borden added 108 yards on the ground running behind the strong Red Bay offensive line.

“The offensive line is getting better and better. Our defensive front is always going to be strong. We did what we had to do tonight. When we found a weakness, and we knew our guy was better than their guy, we exposed it,” Jackson said. “I know they are a 4A school, but coming into the game, we felt like we had the better players and the better team, so we wanted to line up man-on-man, and we wanted to show that.”

The Tigers attempted only three passes in the game, including one on a two-point conversion try. Because of the score and success on the ground, Red Bay chose to keep doing what was working and also keep the clock moving while not giving the Lions a chance to gain hope.

The Red Bay defense set the tone early with a three-and-out on Haleyville’s first drive. Then on their opening possession, the Tigers went on an 8-play drive ending on Ozbirn’s first TD of the night on a 14-yard run. Red Bay’s extra point attempt was missed, but a running-into-the-kicker penalty gave the Tigers another chance, and this time they went for two. Borden kept the ball and converted the try, giving Red Bay the early 8-0 lead.

Haleyville tried to answer, mixing the run and pass, but the drive came up empty when a Scott McAlpine pass was caught but fumbled because of a big Red Bay hit.  Ozbirn helped out on defense by recovering the loose ball.

The two teams then began trading punts before the Red Bay defense forced another turnover when Kaleb Burroughs intercepted a Haleyville pass with 5:58 left in the first half.

Ozbirn and Borden took turns punishing the Lions defense on the ground, leading to a 1-yard TD run by Borden with 42 seconds remaining the half. He then added the try for two to give Red Bay a 16-0 lead. A sack by Red Bay’s Colby Knoblock of ended the first half.

It didn’t take long in the second half for the Tigers to pick up where they left off.  This time it took only eight plays on the ground to find the end zone. Ozbirn, Borden and Reed Holt all had carries before Ozbirn scored from 9 yards out on his second TD of the night. The try for two was incomplete, but Red Bay was pulling away, 22-0.

Freshman quarterback McAlpine of Haleyville tried to get things going with a couple of completions, one to Sherrill and another to Gravitt. Then Knoblock delivered another big hit to stop the Lions’ momentum, and the drive ended on a bad snap on a punt attempt, giving Red Bay good field position.

Holt got in on the scoring action with an 11-yard TD run, and Abdul Muzayad added the first of his two extra-point kicks to give the Tigers a 29-0 lead with 1:48 to go in the third quarter. In the final quarter, Caleb Burroughs added his second interception of the night, and a few plays later, Ozbirn scored again on a 5-yard touchdown carry to finish off the victory.

Red Bay will play the first home game of the season Friday against the Cherokee Indians (1-1).  “Next week will be a great home game. We are looking forward to having a huge crowd there,” Jackson said. The game will be the first in 2A region 8 play for the Tigers.