Russellville boys’ soccer team off to 2-1 start to campaign
The Golden Tigers have officially taken the pitch for the start of the 2026 spring soccer season.
The Russellville High School varsity boys’ soccer team, under first-year head coach Larsen Plyler, made its opening appearance of the season at Mars Hill Bible School’s Bart Andrus Memorial Soccer Tournament on Saturday, February 7. The Golden Tigers, ranked No. 8 in Class 5A in the preseason coaches’ poll, finished second in the three-team tourney and walked away 1-1 after facing Class 7A Hoover and Class 4A Mars Hill.
Russellville played back-to-back games after the first match between Hoover and Mars Hill kicked the memorial tournament off, the Bucs coming away 2-1 winners over the Panthers. That set RHS up with Hoover, a team ranked preseason No. 4 in Class 7A.
The Golden Tigers were able to grab one goal on a penalty kick converted by sophomore Jose Tristan but it wasn’t enough to get past top-10 Hoover which found two goals in the match to win.
Directly after their loss to the Bucs, the Golden Tigers were presented with another challenging match against Mars Hill, preseason ranked No. 4 in Class 4A. This time one goal was enough, however; Tristan bagged his second goal of the day, and the Golden Tigers were able to see it through with their first clean sheet. The victory secured tournament runner-up status for RHS.
Two days later, on Monday, February 9, Russellville hosted West Point for its first home game. RHS put together a solid performance against the Warriors, winning 7-1.
Russellville’s Tristan opened the scoring in the match, giving RHS an early 1-0 lead and him his third goal in as many games. His goal was followed by one from junior German Perez in the 22nd minute. Perez, from a tight angle, beat the WPHS goalkeeper with a shot slotted into the far bottom right corner. The Golden Tigers would take a 2-0 lead into halftime.
Ten minutes into the second half, the Golden Tigers went up 3-0 courtesy of another goal from Perez. A shoddy clearance attempt from West Point fell to Perez just outside the box and the junior took advantage of it, rolling a left-footed shot between two defenders and under the diving West Point goalkeeper.
In the 58th minute the visitors were able to pull one back and kill Russellville’s effort at a clean sheet—a foul in the box sent West Point’s Nathan Marta to the penalty spot and he converted it cooly. But that goal allowed did nothing to dampen the Golden Tigers’ attacking spirit. After the West Point PK RHS went on to put four more past the Warriors.
In the 60th minute, freshman Gerson Deleon made it 4-1 with a shot smashed into the bottom right corner from around 20 yards out.
Russellville’s fifth goal was scored by junior John DeLeon Juarez in the 62nd minute. A cross into the West Point penalty area was chested down by a Golden Tiger into the path of Juarez, who hit the back of the net with a left-footed volley from about 12 yards away.
In the waning moments, the Golden Tigers left no doubt, adding two more goals in less than three minutes. Junior Angelo Romero, with 3:11 left in the match, scored an easy tap in after a harried WPHS goalkeeper fumbled the ball; then, with 30 seconds left, an unmarked Cristopher Mendez Rodriguez got on the end of a well-placed corner kick and thumped in a header from about six yards.
The victory improved Russellville’s record to 2-1. The Golden Tigers are scheduled to play their next match on the road at Haleyville on Friday, February 13.