Golden Tigers fall to Athens as both teams prepare for football playoffs
The Russellville Golden Tigers traveled to Athens High School on Friday night to finish the regular football season, and the Golden Eagles got the win by a 41-14 final score.
Both teams are headed to the AHSAA playoffs with 5A Russellville (8-2) hosting Fairfield (4-6) while 6A Athens (8-2) will travel to Oxford (8-2) for the opening round.
Russellville jumped out to a 7-0 first quarter lead versus the Golden Eagles when Michael Scofield was on the receiving end of a Harrison Burch throw for a 29-yard touchdown play after Malachi Duncan intercepted an Athens pass.
The following Athens drive ended on another turnover as Russellville’s Braxten Goodson intercepted the Golden Eagles’ pass attempt. After an RHS punt, Athens was able to even the score on the last play of the opening quarter when Brogan Gross threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Johnson Speegle.
The Golden Eagles took advantage of a Russellville miscue when the ball went over the head of the punter on the snap and Athens took possession at the RHS 11-yard-line. Four plays later, John McIntyre scored on a short run, and the score was 13-7 after the extra-point kick was no good. The Athens lead grew to 21-7 with 3:27 left in the first half when Silas Jones scored on an 18-yard run that was followed by a successful two-point pass.
Russellville gained momentum just before the halftime break when JT Hill recovered an Athens fumble. After a pass completion from Burch to Cash Crumpton, RHS scored when Cam Phinizee ran for a six-yard touchdown. The Manny Martinez extra-point kick was good, and the Golden Tigers were trailing 21-14 after two quarters.
Athens was able to pull away in the second half with the help of an 11-yard touchdown run by Gross and a 21-yard touchdown reception by Jay’shon Ridgle, both coming in the third period. A 25-yard touchdown run by McIntyre early in the fourth quarter finished the scoring.
