Russellville football season ends with overtime playoff loss to Wenonah
The 2024 football season came to an end for the Russellville Golden Tigers with a 30-28 overtime loss at home to the Wenonah Dragons in the first round of the AHSAA Class 5A playoffs.
Russellville (7-4) had a 22-8 lead at the half, but the Golden Tigers were held scoreless during the third and fourth quarters. Wenonah got the ball first in overtime and scored on a fourth down pass of three yards that was followed with a successful two-point conversion throw and catch. The Golden Tigers answered with a fourth down three-yard touchdown pass of their own when Whit Goodwin threw to Javan Poss, but the following two-point try came up short on a run by Tarus Davis.
Wenonah stopped the Golden Tigers on fourth down on the first possession of the game to set up their only scoring drive of the first half. It took the Dragons three plays on offense to make the score 8-0 with the help of a 10-yard touchdown run that was followed by a successful twopoint conversion rushing play.
After the two teams traded punts, Russellville pulled even on the scoreboard when Cam Phinizee scored on a 42-yard run that was followed by a twopoint run by Richard Scott. The Golden Tigers elected to go for two points after penalties on the Dragons.
Russellville’s Elliott Green intercepted a pass during the second quarter. Later in the period, the Golden Tigers scored on a 16-yard run by Goodwin that was immediately followed by a Tarus Davis touchdown on the recovery of a Wenonah fumble on the kickoff return. Manny Martinez added the extra-point kicks after both touchdowns. Just before the half, Keifer Hallmark intercepted a Wenonah pass to stop a scoring threat by the Dragons.
WHS put together a 12-play scoring drive that finished with a six-yard touchdown pass to start the third quarter that was followed by a sack by Hallmark to stop the two-point conversion attempt which made the score 22-14.
The following RHS drive was stopped when the Dragons intercepted a pass at the Wenonah one-yard-line. Russellville’s Jah Williams returned the favor by grabbing an interception on the following possession to give the ball back to the Golden Tigers. Shortly after, Wenonah received a gift as the snap went over Whit Goodwin’s head and he recovered the ball in the end zone for a safety.
Wenonah evened the score at 22-22 on a short touchdown run with 2:54 left in the fourth quarter but the extra-point kick was blocked. Russellville followed by getting the ball to the Wenonah 39-yard-line but another snap miscue by the Golden Tigers stopped the chance at converting a fourth down play. The Golden Tigers defense then stood strong by stopping the Dragons on a fourth down play at the 13-yardline to send the game into overtime.
“We made some mistakes at some very unfortunate moments that either knocked us off track or took us out of position to convert and get a first down,” Russellville head coach Dustin Goodwin said. “If you want to win these football games, you can’t do stuff like that. We just didn’t do what it took to win.”
With the loss comes the difficult reality that it was the last game in an RHS uniform for the seniors. “I’m extremely grateful for our seniors and I love them all,” Goodwin explained. “There’s going to be a lot of successful young men that move on from this. We don’t always understand God’s plan, but maybe it’s how we handle tough situations like this and move forward in the future. We’re very grateful for our seniors and appreciate their effort and their trust that they placed in us and their willingness to work and fight for us.”
