RUSSELLVILLE - Through their first seven area tilts, the Russellville Golden Tigers had steamrolled the competition, outscoring their opponents 52-2 en route to a perfect 7-0 start and a share of the Class 4A-5A, Area 16 title.
On Monday afternoon, the East Limestone Indians ground the Russellville scoring machine to a halt and took advantage of a defensive miscue to take a stunning 1-0 upset win at Golden Tiger Stadium.
While the Golden Tigers (15-4-0, 7-1 in Area 16) still clinched the top seed for this weekend’s playoffs, the game ended what had been a dream area run on a sour note heading into the postseason.
“We just didn’t play very well,” said Russellville head coach Trey Stanford. “Give East Limestone credit. They played extremely hard.”
Part of that can probably be explained by the fact that due to the tiebreaker rules regarding seeding, the Indians knew they had to win by three goals or more to wrest the top seed away from Russellville. Indeed, chants of “Two More” could be heard on the East Limestone bench during the second half.
The game started positively for Russellville. After some early pressure from the visitors, the Golden Tigers got three corner kicks in a span of about two minutes. The final one fell in front of goal but was just out of the reach of Russellville striker Marvin Betancourt.
Russellville kept the pressure on, but as Stanford noted, his team’s aim on the final shot was never quite where it needed to be.
“We didn’t have good shot placement,” Stanford said. “We just killed the ball at times.”
As the halftime whistle grew nearer, the Indians cleared the ball from the Russellville end. Goalie Jesus Betancourt came out to get the ball, but East Limestone’s Sabian James got to it first and crossed to Nile Foss, who slotted the ball past a streaking Betancourt and made the score 1-0.
Russellville had a few opportunities before halftime, but could not make anything happen.
In the second half, both teams strived to put the ball in the back of the net: Russellville to avoid a home shutout and to fulfill Stanford’s wish of winning the area title outright, East Limestone to take the area crown.
As it happened, the Golden Tigers had two good opportunities. Early in the second half, a cross from Danny Carranza was placed near Betancourt’s golden right foot. However, a slight stumble kept Betancourt from getting all his power behind it, and goalie Hunter Davis was able to grab it.
A second through ball found Betancourt behind the defense, but Davis was able to come out of his net and get a hand on the ball—and then covered it up to prevent a Golden Tiger corner. From there, both teams fought hard for a goal, but neither was able to get the ball in the back of the net.
Stanford said he hoped his team learned a lesson from the stunning loss.
“You have to learn how to find a way to win a game like that,” he said. “It’s something that we have to be able to do to become a championship program, and it’s my responsibility as a head coach to make sure we get there.”
While the end note was sour, Russellville can take solace from an area crown in its first year of varsity competition, and can prepare for a home first round playoff game. The Golden Tigers will take on Class 4A-5A Area 15 runner-up Priceville. A date has not been set for that game, which will be played any day from April 27-29 at Golden Tiger Stadium.
In girls action, East Limestone defeated Russellville 10-0 to finish unbeaten at 8-0 in area play. The Lady Indians will host Lee-Huntsville in the first round of the playoffs. The Lady Golden Tigers finished 2-13-0 and 2-6 in area play.
