Russellville football team defeated by Fairview in triple overtime region game
PHOTO BY BRANNON KING - The Russellville offense battles the Fairview defense.
PHOTO BY BRANNON KING - Russellville’s Gunner Sappington heads up the field after a catch.
PHOTO BY BRANNON KING - Cam Phinizee of RHS takes on a Fairview defender.
PHOTO BY BRANNON KING - The Golden Tigers celebrate a touchdown versus the Aggies.
The Russellville Golden Tigers and Fairview Aggies battled for the top spot in the AHSAA Class 5A Region 7 football standings Friday night, and it took three overtime periods to settle the contest.
The ASWA 5A No. 5 ranked in the state Fairview team left Russellville with a 50-49 win to improve to 5-0 on the season and 4-0 in region play. It was the first region loss for RHS since 2019, and now the Golden Tigers are 4-2 on the season and 3-1 in the region.
The first overtime period included a two-yard touchdown run on fourth down by Fairview that was followed by a 10-yard touchdown run on the first Russellville overtime offensive play by Cam Phinizee. The Manny Martinez extra-point kick evened the score to 42-42.
Russellville was on offense first in the second overtime period and the Golden Tigers had the ball at the one-yard-line but were stopped on a fourth down quarterback keeper. Fairview then had a chance to win the game with a score, but RHS blocked a 23-yard field goal attempt on fourth down to keep the game alive.
The Golden Tigers needed three plays to take the lead in the final overtime when Phinizee scored on a five-yard run. RHS elected to go for the extra-point kick, and it was good. Fairview then took possession and scored a touchdown on a 13-yard pass on third down. The Aggies then went for two points and the win and got it with a pass by all-purpose standout quarterback Kolt Redding to Zayden Cruse.
Fairview started the game with a 7-0 lead on a short TD pass on fourth down. Russellville evened the score in the first quarter with a 72-yard touchdown run by Phinizee. The Aggies regained the lead early in the second quarter on a three-yard run, and RHS looked to answer with a Phinizee TD run, but holding penalties on the drive were costly to the Golden Tigers who came away without points this time when RHS later missed a 36-yard field goal attempt.
After forcing a Fairview punt, Russellville put together a touchdown drive just before the half aided by passes from Whit Goodwin to Gunner Sapppington and finished with a short TD run by Goodwin to tie the score with four seconds left on the clock.
Russellville took the lead on the second play of the second half when Phinizee raced 50-yards for a touchdown. FHS evened things again on the next drive with a short touchdown run. Russellville was forced to punt on the next possession but a Fairview turnover on the kick reception that was recovered by Javan Poss of RHS helped the Golden Tigers. Russellville then grabbed a 28-21 lead on a quarterback run by Goodwin with 2:33 remaining in the third period.
A 15-yard run by Redding tied things up again in the fourth quarter and the Aggies went ahead 35-28 with just over two minutes on the clock on a short run after stopping RHS on fourth down a few plays prior. Russellville answered quickly with a 21-yard TD pass from Goodwin to Sappington to send the game to overtime.
“It was a hard-fought game and both teams played their guts out, [but] unfortunately we were on the wrong side of it at the end,” Russellville head coach Dustin Goodwin said. “In the first half, it would have been nice to come away with points on that drive that we had two touchdowns called back and then missed a field goal, but we had opportunities. Other than that, we busted some things defensively in the secondary, and we didn’t get the ball in the end zone offensively when we could have. All-in-all as a team, we’ve got to get better and take advantage of the situations when we’re playing a good opponent.”
Next for Russellville will be a non-region game at home versus the Hatton Hornets. It will be the first-ever meeting on the football field between the two schools.
