Golden Tigers fall prey to Saints
By Staff
Jonathan Willis
Many comparisons had been made about the similarities between the start of the 2008 and 2009 seasons for Russellville.
Both began with thrilling wins over Deshler, sluggish but big wins over Lee, convincing wins over Butler and tough losses to Hartselle.
Those similarities, however, ended Friday when St. Paul's of Mobile dominated the Golden Tigers at the line of scrimmage and handed them a 24-7 defeat. The Saints win avenged a 41-7 loss from 2008 and gave Russellville its first back to back regular season losses since 2000.
"In the first half they just whipped us," Russellville head coach Doug Goodwin said. "They kept the ball away from us for most of the first half and they just whipped us on both sides of the line of scrimmage."
St. Paul's held the ball for more than 32 minutes and churned out 207 yards on the ground, while holding the Golden Tigers to their lowest offensive output in quite some time.
Russellville finished the evening with just 58 rushing yards and 96 through the air. Senior quarterback Joey Howe was intercepted three times in the second half.
"They tried to give us some scoring chances in the second half but we couldn't get anything going," Goodwin said.
St. Paul's drove down the field on their opening possession and kicked a 25-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.
Just a minute into the second quarter the Saints tacked on the first of three touchdown runs by freshman running back Jordan Huff. Huff had more than 150 yards on the ground.
The Golden Tigers' only score came midway through the second quarter when Howe hit Brent Calloway for an 11-yard touchdown pass.
The Saints added one more score before the half and took a 17-7 lead into the locker room. Huff's final touchdown run came with more than seven minutes remaining in the game.
"We only have two choices," Goodwin said.
"We can throw up our hands and quit or we can come back to work Monday and work to get better."
The Golden Tigers travel to Muscle Shoals (4-1, 2-1) next week as region play resumes. The Trojans have not beaten Russellville since 2000. Friday's loss also guarantees the Golden Tigers of its first regular season since 2000 with more than one regular season loss.
