Russellville erases two-score deficit, rallies past Muscle Shoals to win rivalry thriller 43-35

For 48 minutes Thursday night, the Russellville High School and Muscle Shoals High School varsity football teams traded blows, momentum swings and big plays in a rivalry game that came down to the final seconds, with the Golden Tigers ultimately prevailing 43-35.

The “instant classic” saw Russellville (6-1, 3-1 Class 5A Region 7) overcome three first-half turnovers and a two-score deficit in the second half to rally past the Muscle Shoals (2-3, 2-2 5A R7) in their first meeting in 13 years.

“It’s a big rivalry game. Everyone here wants to beat Muscle Shoals,” Russellville head coach Darrell Higgins said. “It’s kind of like the Alabama-Auburn game the way it is. Winning that game, you could just feel the energy and emotion.”

The Golden Tigers finished strong, but they didn’t have the greatest start to the game offensively. 

Two of Russellville’s first three drives ended in interceptions, and RHS would cough up the ball later in the second quarter on a mishandled snap. The Golden Tigers’ three turnovers in the first half were half as many as they had lost in the previous six games combined.

“We made a lot of mistakes in the first half and put ourselves in a hole,” Higgins said, “but we’ve really grown a lot as a team since the Florence game. When we had adversity happen in the Florence game we couldn’t overcome it, but we’ve grown and we were able to keep playing football at a high level and make the plays we needed to get back in the game.”

Russellville’s offense would go on to make a lot of plays in the second half, but in the first 24 minutes it was the Golden Tiger defense that kept the hosts in the game.

Russellville’s Andy Mojica hit a 35-yard field goal on the team’s second offensive possession to give RHS an opening 3-0 lead, but Muscle Shoals responded a few minutes later with a five-yard touchdown run by quarterback Lincoln Smothers to make it a 7-3 ball game.

The Trojans would go on to add another score on the first play of the second quarter, an 18-yard pass to go up 14-3.

From there it looked like the Golden Tigers might be in danger of letting the contest really slip away, but their defense forced two turnovers that kept the Trojans out of the endzone for the remainder of the half.

The first turnover was a forced fumble recovered by senior defensive lineman Patrick Johnson.

“There were two or three Muscle Shoals players ahead of him, but (Johnson) outran all of them to get on the ball and recover the fumble,” Higgins said.

The other turnover was in the final 90 seconds before the break, and it proved to be the most important play for RHS up to that point. Up 14-3, the Trojans were driving, nearing the redzone and looking to make it a three-score game at halftime, but Russellville sophomore Ridge Stockton ended that possibility by picking off Smothers’ pass in the corner of the endzone.

Four plays later senior quarterback Tripp Cleveland, after struggling with two interceptions in the first quarter, aired out a pass and hit junior receiver Darron Jones in stride for a 69-yard touchdown with :42 remaining in the half.

With the point after attempt up and good, in the span of five plays the Golden Tigers went from being in danger of going down 21-3 to cutting Muscle Shoals’ lead to 14-10.

“We were very fortunate to be in the position we were at halftime after turning the ball over three times against a team like Muscle Shoals, but our defense bailed us out with several big plays,” Higgins said.

“Ridge Stockton’s interception was a big swing in momentum, and then Tripp hitting Jones on that long touchdown pass gave us a lot of momentum going into halftime,” he added.

The Trojans opened the second half with a touchdown to make it 21-10, but Russellville, set up by a long rush by Eli Harris, answered back with a 12-yard touchdown run by senior running back Tarus Davis to pull back within four points with 7:49 remaining in the third quarter.

Davis’ first touchdown of the evening was a preview of what was to come: The Muscle Shoals defense would get a heavy dose of Davis for the rest of the game.

Down 21-17, the Russellville defense made another pivotal play, intercepting another Smothers’ pass in the endzone with under five minutes to go in the third. Junior defensive back Carter Clement, covering his receiver well, tipped Smothers’ pass into the air allowing junior Jasen Noel to pull it in for his second interception of the season.

“I love the way our defense plays,” Higgins said. “They play so hard, and they fly around to the football. They pick each other up when something goes bad, but they kept making big plays for us to keep us in the game.”

The Russellville offense took advantage of the Trojans’ third turnover of the game and put together a 14-play, 90-yard drive that ate nearly seven minutes off the clock. It was capped by a seven-yard go-ahead touchdown run by Davis, his second of the game, to give RHS a 24-21 advantage.

A Muscle Shoals punt later and the Golden Tigers would do it again, this time orchestrating a 55-yard touchdown drive. Davis broke out for a long run to get his team into the redzone, followed it up with a crucial first down rush on third down and 10, and then capped the drive with a one-yard touchdown carry, his third of the game.

After the extra point, the Golden Tigers had their largest lead of the night up 31-21 with 5:12 to play. However, the visitors from Muscle Shoals refused to go away.

The Trojans answered with another passing touchdown on their next possession to make it 31-28, but they still didn’t have an answer for Davis; after recovering the onside kick, Russellville handed it off to Davis three times and on the third time he scampered 40 yards for his fourth rushing touchdown of the night. The blocked extra point brought the scoreline to 37-28, RHS, with 2:40 left.

Davis, who ended the game with 29 carries, received high praise from his head coach, as did his big teammates up front opening the way for him.

“Tarus is, in my opinion, one of the best backs in the state of Alabama. He’s very talented and makes a lot of great plays,” Higgins said, “but he’ll be the first one to tell you if it wasn’t for the offensive line blocking the way they’ve blocked and staying on blocks it wouldn’t be happening. 

“(Davis) went for 250-something yards on a Muscle Shoals defense that hasn’t given up hardly any yards rushing all year, so it’s just a great effort by our offensive line and Tarus,” he added.

Muscle Shoals went down again and scored quickly to pull back within two points, 37-35, so still the game wasn’t over yet; the ensuing onside kick, with 1:42 left, was crucial for the Golden Tigers to recover.

Fortunately for Russellville, sophomore Cade Willis, who had made two big hits earlier in the game, was on the scene and fell on the football to give possession back to the Golden Tiger offense.

Now the home side just needed to gain a first down and run out the remainder of the clock to win. Instead, Davis did his team one better: On fourth down and three with six seconds left, Cleveland’s handoff to Davis resulted in another touchdown. The senior back ran 33 yards into the endzone as time expired, scoring a career-high fifth touchdown of the night and icing Russellville’s first win over Muscle Shoals since 2010.

“I feel very blessed to be here and to be in this environment,” Higgins said after his team’s victory. “I told the players before the game to soak it all in and enjoy playing in a game like this because that’s why you do all of the hard work.

“Our fans were unbelievable, and it was a great high school environment,” he added.

The win over Muscle Shoals puts Russellville, with three region games against Athens, Decatur and Austin remaining, in a prime position to secure the region’s second seed and host a first round playoff game. In control of their own destiny, the Golden Tigers, who travel to Athens for their next game, will try to avoid a let down following the emotional win over the rival Trojans.

“It’s going to be a huge game next week at Athens. We’ve got to have a good week of practice and get back ready to play,” Higgins said. “That (Muscle Shoals) game is behind us; whether you win a game or lose a game you have to get ready for the next one, so we’ll come out Sunday like we do every week and start to get ready for Athens.”