One week after defeating Deshler, Golden Tigers hoping to avoid upset
By Staff
Scot Beard
The opening weekend of the Alabama high school football season was a dangerous one for ranked teams.
Of the 60 teams ranked in Class 1A through Class 6A, 21 lost last week.
Class 5A suffered the least damage with No. 5 St. Paul's and No. 9 Chelsea being the only two ranked teams to fall. Class 4A was hit the hardest with six ranked teams losing – No. 1 Deshler, No. 2 Thomasville, No. 4 UMS-Wright, No. 7 Clarke County, No. 9 Andalusia and No. 10 Elmore County.
Russellville – ranked fourth in Class 5A – opened last week by defeating Deshler 26-14. This week the Golden Tigers will host Lee-Huntsville, a team that defeated then Class 2A No. 4 Red Bay 18-7 Saturday night.
Last week the Russellville defense shut down the Deshler offense – a unit that received quite a bit of praise heading into the season.
The Golden Tigers' defense allowed only one touchdown and forced several turnovers-on-downs late in the game to keep Deshler from building a rally.
The Russellville defense should be able to maintain that pressure this week as Lee struggled on offense against Red Bay.
The Generals were unable to sustain a long drive and both of their scoring drives came off turnovers committed by Red Bay in its own territory.
In the second half, Lee was unable to generate any scoring drives and only managed to record a single first down.
It was tough to get a read on the Lee defense because the Red Bay offense struggled to find its rhythm. The Generals did a fairly good job of slowing the Red Bay running game, but it did surrender a few long rushes.
The Lee pass defense remains a question. They held Red Bay to only four completed passes, but many of the incomplete passes were overthrown, not broken up by the defense.
This is Lee's first season in Region 8 and the Generals are looking to make a splash by knocking off the team favored to win the region. They were 2-8 last year in a much weaker region.
The Golden Tigers should not have too much trouble improving to 2-0 if they can avoid looking ahead.
