Jamboree shows RHS areas for improvement
The Russellville Golden Tigers went to Athens for a jamboree game Friday night in what served as a dress rehearsal for the 2017 football season for both teams. The Golden Eagles led throughout on their way to a 35-7 win.
Athens led 14-0 at the half and 21-0 in the third quarter until Russellville’s Luke Barnwell connected with Calen Bragwell on a 65-yard touchdown pass. With many young players in the game to gain valuable experience, AHS outscored the Golden Tigers 14-0 in the final quarter of action at Larry McCoy Field.
Three quarterbacks took snaps in the game for RHS, with freshman Barnwell seeing the majority of playing time. Devin Buckhalter saw some action at both quarterback and receiver before leaving the game with an apparent foot injury after making a tackle on defense early in the third quarter. Jacob Davis finished out the game and completed three of four passes as quarterback.
“I think we’ve got a lot of kinks to work out,” RHS Coach Mark Heaton said. “On the field, performance-wise, we just saw a lot of mistakes – which you expect a little bit in the jamboree. I’m thankful that we had the opportunity to do this because we needed to see that. It identified a lot of things that we need to work on.
“A big key for us is how our guys handle this, and a lot of it is how they handle the coaching because we’ve got a lot of coaching to do and a lot of things to fix. How we handle that and move forward is going to be key for our season.”
Russellville’s first play from scrimmage showed promise as Barnwell threw to Buckhalter for a nice six-yard gain, but then the drive stalled. Athens then went on a long drive before the RHS defense came up strong with a stop on fourth down and a yard to go at their own 24-yard-line.
The following Russellville possession lasted nine plays and included a great throw and catch from Barnwell to Buckhalter for a 27-yard gain on a third down play. However, the drive stalled when Athens intercepted a pass inside their own territory.
Sophomore quarterback Logan Smothers took control on the next Athens’ possession, running the ball resulting in the first TD of the night on a one-yard carry.
The Russellville defense made a big play in the second quarter when Connor Stults recovered an Athens fumble to set the Golden Tigers up with great field position. After a couple of nice runs by Robert Hamilton, a penalty, a sack and an interception put an end to the RHS scoring threat.
Late in the half, the Golden Eagles sacked the RHS quarterback and recovered a fumble on the play, and Smothers again ran in for a touchdown a few plays later with only 10 seconds before the end of the quarter.
The Golden Eagles scored three times before the Golden Tigers put together a scoring drive of their own. Barnwell completed passes to four different receivers in the possession, including the touchdown pass to Bragwell. Samuel Bahena kicked the extra point for Russellville.
AHS got a three-yard touchdown run and a 58-yard TD pass on a short forward toss to a runner cutting across in front of the quarterback for the final scoring play of the night.
Russellville will look to get the regular season off to a winning start Friday night in Tuscumbia against the Deshler Tigers. DHS picked up a victory over Haleyville last week in a regular season game.
