Golden Tigers cruise past LCHS 38-12
Tyler Boyd (1) runs past the Lawrence County defense for one of his four touchdown runs Friday. Scot Beard/FCT
Russellville running back Tyler Boyd stepped on the field with a clear mission in mind. He wanted to make people forget last week’s loss at Deshler and show the Golden Tigers will be contenders in Class 5A, Region 8.
It didn’t take long for him to accomplish that mission. Early in the first quarter Boyd had a pair of touchdown runs, giving the Golden Tigers a 14-0 advantage.
“We came out hard and tried to get up before they could score,” Boyd said. “We had to prove people wrong. Some people thought we would lose again.”
The people Boyd was speaking of were incorrect of their assessment of Russellville’s chances against Lawrence County. Although the game was sloppy at times, the Golden Tigers dominated the Red Devils and cruised to a 38-12 victory.
Russellville (1-1, 1-0) padded its lead in the first quarter with another touchdown run by Boyd. Jose Betancourt added a 36-yard field goal to push the Golden Tiger lead to 24-0 midway through the second quarter.
The Lawrence County quarterback, who threw an interception to Russellville’s Kaleb Daniel on his first play of the game, settled in during the second quarter and led the Red Devils on a scoring drive capped by a 15-yard touchdown run.
Russellville wasted little time answering, as Devan Parker hit Jacob Seal for a 54-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the ensuing drive to give the Golden Tigers a 31-6 advantage by halftime.
Russellville coach Michael Jackson said he was proud of the way his team started the game, but was not too pleased with the play in the second half.
“When you lose focus, you are going to struggle,” Jackson said.
The Red Devils (1-1, 0-1) were able to put together a couple of long drives in the second half, and earned many of their 113 rushing yards in the third and fourth quarters.
Although Lawrence County was able to get its offense clicking, the Russellville defense gave up only one score in the second half, an 11-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.
Boyd picked up his fourth touchdown of the night when he scampered for a 24-yard dash in the fourth quarter.
“I had a good night,” Boyd said. “But if it weren’t for the rest of the offense, I wouldn’t have gotten that.”
One area the Golden Tigers improved on from last week was turnovers. Russellville had four turnovers against Deshler last week, but only lost one fumble this week. The defense also forced four Lawrence County turnovers after not recording one last week.
Jackson was pleased with the turnover margin, but said there was one area in which his team needed to improve.
“We did a better job of taking care of the ball and the defense took advantage of opportunities,” Jackson said. “We did put ourselves in bad situations with penalties. They were focus penalties, not effort penalties.”
Russellville travels to Athens next week for a key Region 8 game.
