By Staff
Keith Ledbetter
For the FCT
BELMONT, Miss. – Just a few miles and a state line may separate the two schools, but the rivalry runs deep between the Red Bay Tigers and the Belmont Cardinals.
Both schools may loose games during the regular season, but the one they remember the most is the winner of the Tigers vs. Cardinals game.
After playing each other for several years in pre-season jamboree games, both schools added one another to their regular season line up for the first time in many years. Friday night the Cardinals took some revenge over loosing the past several years to the Tigers with a 22-6 win.
"I can't say that I'm surprised," said Tiger head football coach Dale
Jeffreys. "We've been flirting with this for a long time. Every time since the season started we haven't been tackling very well. And we haven't got any better at it."
As fans on both sides lined the fence in a standing room only game, Belmont wasted little time in setting up their first score after Cardinal quarterback Cody Parham connected with Cody Sartain to the Tigers' 9-yard line.
The next play Parham went in from the six and also added the 2-point conversion for a 8-0 lead with 9:32 remaining in the first quarter.
Turnovers and penalties plagued the Tigers next two series, as Red Bay struggled to put together a complete drive.
After turning over the ball over on downs midway through the second quarter, Belmont took only eight plays to travel 78 yards for a Dustin Poole TD from the 27.
Trailing 14-0 with seconds remaining in the first half, Red Bay got to within scoring range on third-and-goal from the Cardinals' eight, but again a fumble ended their chances for score before the end of the first half.
Poole added the Cardinals final score midway through the third, with the Tigers scoring their only TD on a pitch out from Tiger quarterback Cody Palmer to Chase Lindsey from the six.
"Turnovers and missed tackles were the difference in the game. You have to give their kids credit," Jeffreys said. "They ran hard, they blocked hard, they tackled hard. They beat us in every phase of the game."