Golden Tigers get football region victory at West Point
The Russellville Golden Tigers went to West Point High School Oct. 18 and defeated the Warriors, 44-13, for a football region win.
No. 10 ranked in 5A, Russellville improved to 6-2 overall on the season, and the Golden Tigers are now 4-1 in AHSAA Class 5A, Region 7. RHS has clinched second place in the region and will host a first-round game in the upcoming playoffs. Russellville has regular season games remaining at Priceville and at home versus Athens.
West Point grabbed an early 7-0 lead with a touchdown pass on the first possession of the game on Friday night. The Golden Tigers answered on their first drive with an 18-yard touchdown run by Cam Phinizee, and the Manny Martinez extrapoint kick evened the score.
RHS grabbed the lead two plays later when Zay Hubbard intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. West Point’s next drive stopped when Richard Scott recovered a fumble by the Warriors. Early in the second quarter, Phinizee scored on a short run to make the score 21-7. Martinez grew the RHS lead to 24-7 with a 27-yard field goal with 4:04 remaining in the second quarter. Just before the half, Jah Williams of Russellville intercepted a pass by the Warriors to stop a scoring threat.
The Golden Tigers needed five plays to find the end zone to start the second half. Phinizee ran 25 yards this time for another touchdown, and RHS was up, 31-7. West Point scored on the following drive on a twoyard run on fourth down, but Hubbard blocked the extra-point kick.
Russellville added two touchdown runs by Tarus Davis to finish the scoring. The first touchdown by Davis covered seven yards just before the end of the third period. His second touchdown of the game came on a 23-yard run with less than a minute to go in the contest.
“The first series we gave up a touchdown again but seemed to settle down some,” Russellville head coach Dustin Goodwin said. “Obviously, we’d like to get nothing but three-and-outs and score every time we get it, but the other team’s job is to score on us and stop us. Unfortunately, we don’t get that done from time to time, but it’s good to get another region win, and I’m proud of the guys for being able to pull it out.”
