Golden Tigers overcome slow start to advance

RUSSELLVILLE- Doug Goodwin has a philosophy about advancing through the state playoffs.

"If you want to go far, you have to win a game you don't play well," Goodwin said.

He hopes that was Friday night as Russellville shrugged off a slow start to pull out 28-6 win over Southside-Gadsden.

"The first half, and really the whole game, we played good defense," Goodwin said following the win. "But we had no offense in the first half, we weren't blocking and we weren't running hard."

He summed up the team's overall play as "sloppy with way too many penalties." Russellville was flagged 12 times for 115 yards.

That was evident with a 0-0 score at the half. In fact, Russellville managed only two first downs in the first half and leading rusher Brent Calloway had five carries for no yards. He ended the game with 108 yards rushing on 16 carries.

Southside wasn't much better, having only one major drive, going 15 plays and using more than eight minutes before missing a 37-yard field goal.

"The second half the offense did well. We were able to establish the run, which enabled us to win the game," Goodwin said.

Russellville opened the second half with a bang, scoring two touchdowns within the first three minutes of the third quarter.

The Golden Tigers got the game's first touchdown with 9:31 left in the third when quarterback Joey Howe passed 12 yards to Ryan Romans for a score. Russellville went 71 yards in seven plays for the touchdown.

On Southside's next possession, Russellville's Casey Herring scooped up a fumble and ran 33 yards to give the Golden Tigers a 14-0 lead.

Russellville pushed the lead to 21-0 five minutes later when Howe passed to Jyran Darby on a screen pass and Darby ran 38 yards for the third touchdown of the quarter.

With just over 10 minutes left to play, Southside took advantage of a Russellville mistake for a score.

Starting at the Golden Tigers 34, after recovering a fumble, Zachery Elgins passed to Matthew Howard for 34 yards and a touchdown on a halfback pass, cutting the lead to 21-6, which was as close as the score would get.

Russellville's final score came with 4:27 left to play as a result of a Southside fumble.

The Golden Tigers recovered at the Southside 34 yards and two plays later Calloway scored on a 5-yard run. Calloway had a 25-yard run on the first play following the fumble recovery.

Russellville, 9-2 will host region rival Muscle Shoals next week in the second round of the playoffs. Southside ends the season 5-6.