By Staff
45-18
Stephen Moore
Franklin County Times
HACKLEBURG – The Red Bay Tigers used a balanaced offensve attack to defeat the Hackleburg Panthers 45-18 in a non-region matchup Friday night.
Josh Senkbeil scored twice in the first half and finished with 125 yards on 20 carries for the Tigers.
In the opening quarter, Senkbeil rushed in from the 7-yard line and Pablo Makepeace nailed the first of six point-after attempts to put Red Bay ahead.
Hackleburg's Jon McKinney threw scoring passes to Rynn McGuire and Garrett McHenry to narrow the Tiger's lead to 21-12 after Anthony Horton found Joe McKinney for a 31-yard scoring strike and Senkbeil plunged in from the 3-yard line.
But Red Bay went into the locker room at halftime ahead 24-12 thanks to a 33-yard field goal by Makepeace, who hasn't missed a field goal or PAT attempt this season.
The Red Bay varsity added two more scores in the third quarter when Cody Armstong scored on a 43-yard run during the Tigers' opening drive of the second half, and Horton found McKinney again for a 7-yard touchdown pass.
Red Bay primarily played its B-team players in the fial period, and backup quarterback Cody Palmer scord on a 3-yard run with 10:47 remaining.
The Panthers' Derek Reid added a 10-yard rushing touchdown midway through the last period to make the final score 45-18.
Horton finished 8-of-15 for 111 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions.
The Tigers converted more first downs (16) than Hackleburg (10), and they also didn't lose a turnover compared to the Panthers' three lost fumbles.
"We tried to do a lot on offense – we gave a lot of diffrent looks for a lot of different things to confuse (Hackleburg) because we knew they do a lot of different things on defense," Red Bay football coach Dale Jeffreys said. "We've got ot a little momentum going into next week's region game being 5-0, and we need to keep building on it, and improving."
Red Bay hosts region rival Winston County next Friday at Fred Bostick, Jr. Memorial Stadium.