Red Bay surges past Fayette County

The Red Bay Tigers scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to pull away from the Fayette County Tigers 36-20 Friday night.

The win also prevented Fayette County from getting to 800 all-time wins.

It was a good warm-up game for the Tigers, who will host Winston County in the first round of the playoffs Friday night.

Once again, Red Bay did most of the damage to their opponent on the ground. The home Tigers rushed for 275 yards while holding Fayette County to 53 yards on the ground. Fayette County threw the ball 35 times, completing 24 of the passes, for 184 yards.

The game was scoreless until the end of the first quarter when Red Bay scored on a seven-yard run by Hunter King with 19 second to go. King added a two-point conversion run to give the Tigers an 8-0 lead.

Fayette County cut the lead to 8-6 early in the second quarter on a six-yard touchdown pass.

Red Bay scored again with 2:59 to go in the second quarter on a 36-yard run by Mason Holt. King converted the two-point conversion run to give Red Bay a 16-6 lead at the half.

Fayette cut Red Bay’s lead to 16-12 late in the third quarter on a 16-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown.

The Tigers got their first score of the second half on the first play of the fourth quarter on a 15-yard run by Aiden Quinn. The score gave the Tigers a 22-12 lead.

Red Bay extended that lead to 30-12 midway through the fourth quarter on a one-yard run by Jalen Vinson and two-point conversion run by Quinn.

Fayette added another score with 4:14 to go in the game on a six-yard pass to cut Red Bay’s lead to 30-20, but Red Bay put the icing on the cake on a 51-yard interception return for a touchdown by Vinson with 1:12 to go in the game.

Quinn led the Tiger offense with 120 yards rushing on 18 carries and a touchdown.

Cam McKinney led the Red Bay defense with 14 tackles.

Red Bay closes out the regular season with an 8-1 record.