The Russellville football team traveled to East Limestone High School on Friday night for a varsity game and the Golden Tigers improved to 5-0 on the season and 3-0 in the region with a 53-7 victory over the Indians.

RHS led 43-7 at the half with the help of four touchdown runs by Cam Phinizee and two touchdown passes by Harrison Burch.

Russellville’s defense forced a punt by East Limestone on the game’s opening possession. Five plays later, Phinizee scored on a four-yard run to put the Golden Tigers up 6-0. The following PAT attempt was a pass from Burch to an open Brock Reathford for a successful two-point play.

The Golden Tigers made the score 15-0 with just over five minutes to go in the first quarter when Phinizee scored again, this time on a 39-yard carry which was followed by an extra-point kick by Manny Martinez. East Limestone scored their only touchdown of the contest on the next possession. The Indians put together an 11-play march that finished with a 14-yard touchdown run by the quarterback early in the second quarter.

RHS then took possession after the kickoff and it took one play for the Golden Tigers to answer as Phinizee used blocking and speed to race 80 yards for another touchdown. The defense stepped up again on the next East drive and Russellville’s Jah Williams intercepted a pass. Soon after, a fake punt run by Malachi Duncan for a first down paid off for RHS as the Golden Tigers scored a few plays later on a 36-yard pass from Burch to Bralynn Vincent to make the score 29-7 with 7:13 left in the first half.

Russellville finished the half strong with a 1-yard Phinizee touchdown rush and a 49-yard scoring pass from Burch to Cash Crumpton that came with just over two minutes left in the second quarter.

The second half featured a 40-yard field goal from Martinez that produced points on an 11-play drive by RHS to start the third quarter to make the score 46-7 and a 13-yard touchdown run by Duncan early in the fourth to put a cap on the victory.

“Great win,” Russellville head coach John Ritter said after the game. “Capshaw’s a tough place to play. I thought we came over here and played extremely well and did a lot of good stuff.”

Next up for the Golden Tigers will be a non-region game that deserves a lot of attention from people around the state as the undefeated Russellville team travels to take on the also unbeaten Mars Hill Panthers.

“We get to play the number one team in 3A and when you go to Russellville that’s what you want to do. You want to play high quality games,” Ritter shared. “That’s why we play Grissom, that’s why we play Deshler, that’s why we play Mars Hill and that’s why we finish with Athens. We don’t want to play competition that we feel is beneath us. We want to play the best of the best and you can’t get any better than the number one team in 3A.”