The Russellville Golden Tigers opened the varsity football season with a 35-21 victory over the Deshler Tigers in the first game under the leadership of new head coach Dustin Goodwin.

Junior running back Cam Phinizee helped lead Russellville High School to the win over rival Deshler by rushing for more than 350 yards and four touchdowns. As a team, Russellville outgained DHS 509-425 in total yards and 411-259 on the ground. The defense of the Golden Tigers forced five Deshler turnovers while Russellville only turned the ball over once.

Russellville jumped out to a fast start when Phinizee took a handoff from Whit Goodwin and electrified the large home crowd with a 76-yard touchdown run on the first play of the game. Manny Martinez followed with the first of his five successful extra-point kicks of the contest to make the score 7-0.

Deshler answered with a touchdown drive of their own on their opening possession to even the score. DHS then added second quarter TD runs of one and five yards to claim a 21-7 advantage.

After falling behind by two touchdowns, it only took the Golden Tigers one play to answer. Quarterback Tripp Cleveland connected with Gunner Sappington for a 70-yard touchdown pass to make the score 21-14 with 4:29 remaining in the first half. DHS threatened to score late in the second quarter but a Keifer Hallmark interception gave the ball back to Russellville.

The Golden Tigers evened the score at 21-21 when Phinizee ran 88-yards for a touchdown on the second play of a drive after a Deshler punt had RHS at their own two-yard-line. The next DHS offensive play resulted in a fumble recovery by Russellville’s Daniel Aycock, his second of the game. A couple of snaps later, Phinizee scored on an 18-yard run to give the Golden Tigers a 28-21 lead with 5:52 remaining in the third period.

Andres Gaspar of Russellville recovered another Deshler fumble on the next possession and a long run by Phinizee was brought back soon after due to one of many penalties called during the contest.

Deshler put together a 16-play drive during the game’s fourth quarter that ended with a big interception by Russellville’s Zay Hubbard in the end zone with three minutes on the clock to preserve the lead of the Golden Tigers. Phinizee then ran the football five consecutive plays during a 98-yard scoring drive that included a 75-yard carry followed by a one-yard touchdown run with 26 seconds left in the game.

“It absolutely feels great,” Russellville head coach Dustin Goodwin said after his first win as leader of the program. “Sometimes the first is the hardest to get. We sure tried to shoot ourselves in the foot in the first half a little bit, but the guys settled down at halftime and came out and established the run game in the second half. The defense played better and got the ball back and got a few stops. I was really proud of our coaches and our team.”

Next for RHS will be a trip to Florence to play against Mars Hill Bible School. The Panthers defeated Madison Academy to open their season.