Golden Tigers drop to 0-2 after 47-19 home loss to Mars Hill

The Russellville High School varsity football team dropped to 0-2 after a 47-19 home loss to the No. 1-ranked team in Class 3A, Mars Hill, on Friday night.

A one-score game at the end of the first quarter, the visitors started to pull away midway through the second quarter and tacked on two additional touchdowns in the second half to hand the Golden Tigers the 28-point defeat.

“We turned the ball over too much, didn’t finish drives offensively, and just gave up too many big plays defensively,” second-year Russellville head coach Dustin Goodwin said. “We’ve got to do a better job offensively, I’ve got to do a better job, and obviously we’ve still got some things to fix on the defensive side of the ball, too.

“We’re playing with a young group. They’re just going to have to take this experience and grow from it,” he added.

Mars Hill started the scoring early in the first quarter with a one-yard touchdown run by senior running back Jaxon Penn. The Panthers then followed it up late in the quarter with an 85-yard touchdown run by another senior running back, Hudson Higgins, to make it 14-0.

Russellville responded to the two-score deficit with a long touchdown of its own on the following drive. Sophomore quarterback Whit Goodwin found a wide open Malaki Groce with acres of space in the middle of the field and hit him for a 44-yard touchdown, the longest scoring play of the season for the Golden Tigers thus far. That cut the deficit to 14-6 after the missed extra point.

Russellville did manage one more score in the first half—a two-yard touchdown run by Goodwin with 6:03 to play until halftime—but the latter half of the second quarter is when Mars Hill started to run away with the game. The Panthers piled on explosive plays by the likes of Penn and Higgins, while the Golden Tigers failed to capitalize on Mars Hill mistakes and finish drives in the endzone.

Mars Hill, racking up over 200 yards of offense in the first 24 minutes, scored three more touchdowns in the first half—two passing touchdowns and one rushing—to go into halftime up 33-12.

In the second half, despite some promising drives from the Golden Tigers, the hosts couldn’t manage to crack the Mars Hill defense again until the final few minutes. The Panthers scored two more touchdowns in the second half—one in the third and the other in the fourth quarter—to make it 47-12 before Russellville junior running back Devin Morris capped the scoring with a two-yard touchdown run with 3:40 to play.

Despite the loss, Goodwin pointed to some positives that Russellville can build on with this young team as it heads into its region opener against Lawrence County next week.

“I think we ran the ball a little better than last week, and we were able to pick up yards through the air. I do think we grew from week one to week two; it’s not quite where we want it or need it to be, but I do think there will be some more positives to take away once we sit down and watch it,” he said.

“This team has two games under its belt against two good opponents, but now region play starts and those are the ones that really count,” Goodwin added.

Russellville will host the Lawrence County Red Devils in its region opener at Golden Tiger Stadium on Friday, September 5 with kickoff set for 7 p.m.