Golden Tigers notch first win of season defeating region rival Lawrence County 35-6

The Russellville High School varsity football team picked up its first win of the 2025 campaign on Friday night, defeating the visiting Lawrence County Red Devils 35-6 at Golden Tiger Stadium. Russellville’s win over its region rival improves its record to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in Class 5A Region 7 play.

“It’s always important to get the first (win) and hopefully that gives these guys some confidence and shows them that they can be a good football team,” Russellville second-year head coach Dustin Goodwin told the Franklin Free Press. “We haven’t arrived by any means but we’re on the right track, and getting the first region win is a big deal.”

After taking the opening kickoff, Russellville started in good field position around mid-field. The Golden Tigers drove deep into Lawrence County (1-2, 0-1) territory, but the opening drive stalled inside the Red Devils’ five-yard line and the hosts turned the ball over on downs.

That first hangup didn’t deter RHS, though. The remainder of the first half was pretty much all Russellville. 

The Golden Tigers got the scoring started late in the first quarter on a 22-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Whit Goodwin to senior wide receiver Bryson Cooper, his first touchdown catch of the year. Goodwin, rolling to his right, found Cooper open in the corner of the endzone to make it 7-0 after the extra point by senior kicker David Tomas.

Just over two minutes later, with 10 seconds left in the quarter, junior running back Tarus Davis gashed the Lawrence County defense with a 74-yard rushing score to make it 14-0. The run was his longest of the season.

Davis found the endzone again a few minutes later on Russellville’s next possession; his 13-yard run with 9:52 remaining in the half made it 21-0.

RHS closed out the half with one final rushing touchdown, this one by junior running back Devin Morris, who took the handoff into the endzone from five yards out to make it 28-0.

Between Davis, Morris, and the quarterback Goodwin, who also had a few impressive carries throughout the contest, the Golden Tigers finally got their rushing attack going Friday night, something RHS failed to do effectively in the opening two games.

“(The run game) is something we’ve really focused on getting better at because we know we’re going to have to run the football,” Goodwin said. “I thought the guys up front did a good job paving the way and opening up running lanes, and the (running) backs, to their credit, seeing those lanes and pushing the ball downfield.

“For the offense to work everybody’s got to do their part, and I think tonight we were able to do that a lot better in the run game,” he added.

The Russellville head coach said running the ball well against Lawrence County allowed the Golden Tigers to push the ball down the field through the air more effectively, as well. 

The quarterback Goodwin, who has made his living dispensing the ball on short, quick routes, was throwing more vertically against LCHS Friday night. There were some dropped passes, but he was able to find open receivers across the middle and on the perimeter throughout the night. His second touchdown pass of the evening—and Cooper’s second touchdown reception—came on an 18-yard slant route across the middle of the field with about six minutes remaining.

“We want to be balanced and being able to run the football definitely helps with that,” Goodwin said. “Anytime we have space to attack we want to find good, effective ways to do that. For the most part, I thought we did a good job of doing that tonight in several areas.

“I thought we came out ready to play tonight, and we were able to put some things together offensively and finish drives—which is something we really haven’t been able to do the last couple weeks,” he added. “It still wasn’t perfect, but I’m proud of the effort, proud of the execution. I thought we were able to take what they were giving us and get the ball into the endzone.”

On the defensive side of the ball, Russellville was no slouch either. The Golden Tigers forced two turnovers—a Malaki Groce interception in the first half and a forced fumble, recovered by sophomore Jason Noel, in the second—and applied plenty of pressure on the LCHS quarterbacks, especially in the first half. RHS pitched a shutout in the opening 24 minutes, and aside from the one LCHS scoring drive in the third quarter, were able to stop the Red Devils before any real damage was done.

“Defensively, we played well enough to keep them to one score,” Goodwin said. “I thought there were times when we could’ve tackled a little better and times when they were on the field a little too long, but we’re not going to complain about winning a football game.”

As Goodwin mentioned previously, he’s hopeful this first win will boost the confidence of his players. He added that the Golden Tigers will take both the good and the bad from this game and use it to improve as they near the halfway mark of the regular season.

“There’s always things to improve upon in all three phases of the game,” he said. “We’ll watch the film and break it down. We’ll see what we did right and praise (the players) for that. We’ll see what we did wrong and attack it and continue to improve as we move forward.”

Russellville returns to Golden Tiger Stadium for its next game against region foe East Limestone on Friday, September 12.

Russellville junior running back Tarus Davis (24) takes a handoff from sophomore quarterback Whit Goodwin (11) during pre-game warmups on Friday, September 5.