Golden Tigers claim victory over Indians
By Brannon King for the FCT
The Russellville Golden Tigers went to East Limestone Friday night knowing that they had a good plan in place to beat the Indians. The defense would have to get some stops against the ball-control offense of East Limestone, and the recent move of Bernard Phinizee to wildcat quarterback would have to continue to pay dividends on the offensive side of the football.
The game plan of the RHS coaching staff worked, as the Golden Tigers went onto Cavnar Field and came away with a thrilling, 17-13 victory. Phinizee carried the ball 30 times in the game and rushed for 161 yards and a touchdown.
“We eliminated a lot of mistakes. We still had some execution stuff, but we eliminated some of those mental turnovers that we’ve been committing in the first half,” Russellville head coach Mark Heaton said. “I think eliminating those and giving yourself a chance to win in the fourth quarter is what we’ve been trying to do all year.”
Russellville (2-6, 2-4) took over on offense with the four-point lead with 6:27 remaining in the game and went on a 12-play drive that got the Golden Tigers down to the East Limestone 16-yard line. After considering a field goal on fourth down to put his team up by a touchdown, Heaton decided to go for the first down, knowing that if he was successful, his team would be up by two scores, or if the first down was made, his offense could simply run out the clock for the victory.
The play resulted in an incomplete pass, but it left the Indians 84 yards from the end zone with less than a minute to score and no time-outs remaining.
“To get yourself into a situation where you have to battle it out right there at the end, and for it to be the defense on the field that wins the game for us, is just huge,” Heaton said. “I feel that the last couple of weeks offensively, we’ve gotten a lot better. Special teams have been getting a lot better, and tonight, our defense grew up a lot. I’m proud of those guys. I felt that defensively, we had a great plan going in, and our staff did a great job.”
The two teams played a scoreless first quarter before East got onto the scoreboard first on a five-yard touchdown run by Zachary Cosby. On the PAT attempt, the Indians chose to go for two after an RHS penalty, but the try was unsuccessful, leaving the score 6-0 in favor of ELHS.
The next RHS drive resulted in a punt, but the returner fumbled, and Albaro Francisco of RHS recovered the ball. After seven-straight Phinizee runs from the quarterback position to get the ball inside the East Limestone 10-yard line, Kenner Perez came on to make a 24-yard field goal.
Russellville took the lead with 7:40 remaining the in third quarter when Phinizee scored on an 18-yard run. The Perez extra-point kick put the Golden Tigers up 10-6.
It only took one play for the Indians to take back the lead when quarterback Andrew Parris ran for a 60-yard TD. The Golden Tigers scored to retake the lead when Luke Barnwell threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Logan Jones with 2:22 left in the third quarter. Jones had already made a big play on defense earlier in the game when he intercepted a long East Limestone pass in the first half.
Up next for RHS will be the homecoming game this Friday night against the Admore Tigers. The game will be the final region game of the season, and with a win, it would be possible for RHS to move into a tie for fourth place in Class 5A, Region 8, with Lawrence County and East Limestone, if those schools fall in their games this week.
