Phil Campbell walks over Winston County 36-8 to improve to 3-1 in region play

After three losses to start the 2026 campaign, the Phil Campbell High School varsity football team has won three games on the bounce, beating Winston County 36-8 Friday night to improve to 3-3 and 3-1 in Class 2A Region 7.

“It was a good game, and it’s always good to get a win, especially when it’s a region win,” Phil Campbell head coach Jacob Hamilton said.

“It’s exciting, a great win, and we’re happy to move to 3-1 in the region,” Hamilton added.

The game was a relatively short one, especially for the Phil Campbell offense. The Bobcats ran just 28 plays over the course of 48 minutes, but when the offense was on the field, they made it count.

“We ran it 14 times, we threw it 14 times and I think we only had the ball for seven minutes and 52 seconds the entire game,” Hamilton said. “We were able to score on the chances we had, and we were able to keep (Winston County) at bay.”

Phil Campbell opened the scoring early in the game on a long, 91-yard touchdown rush by senior Austin Elliott to put PCHS up 6-0.

Winston County answered back to start the second quarter with a seven-yard touchdown run. After the successful two-point conversion the Yellow Jackets led 8-6, but the hosts’ lead didn’t last too long: The Bobcats retook the lead late in the half on another 72-yard run by Elliott to make it a 15-8 game.

Elliott would go on to score his third touchdown, a 32-yard reception from senior quarterback Hayston Scott, right after halftime and give Phil Campbell a 22-6 advantage.

“It was a big game for Austin Elliott,” Hamilton said. “He touched the ball four times and he scored three times—only got tackled once.

“It was huge for him having a breakout game, especially putting him in the backfield and letting him get some carries,” he added.

The quarterback Scott scored the Bobcats’ fourth touchdown on a 23-yard rush in the third quarter. Phil Campbell then wrapped up the scoring later in the quarter on an 18-yard touchdown rush by Braxton Downey to give the game its 36-8 final.

The teams played with a running clock in the fourth quarter.

The victory pulls the Bobcats back up to .500 for the campaign. Hamilton said his team learned from mistakes and miscues in the first three games and have been dialed in during the last three.

“After we dropped the Lexington game we knew we couldn’t drop another one if we were going to achieve the goals we set for ourselves this year,” Hamilton said. “We’ve gotten hot and we want to continue that like we always think that we can.

“It says a lot about these guys that they’ve continued to fight, continued to push and practice really hard,” he added. “We’ve been focused on us and getting better each week, and I think we’ve done that.”

Phil Campbell has four more games left in the regular season, three of which are region games against Tanner, Sheffield and Falkville. At 3-1 in the region, the Bobcats are currently tied atop the Region 7 standings with Colbert County and Lexington and with the head-to-head advantage over CCHS.

So, despite the slow start to the season, the Bobcats still have so much to play for, including a home playoff game and still potentially a region championship. However, Hamilton said he wants his team to block out the outside noise and focus on themselves and the next opponent on the schedule.

“Us, Lexington and Colbert County are tied at 3-1 in the region now, and after Colbert County beat Lexington I had people asking, ‘What does that mean for us? What does that mean for us?’ Well, we’ve just got to focus on ourselves,” Hamilton said. “We can’t worry about other teams and who’s playing who. We’ve got to focus on ourselves and take things week by week.

“It was an exciting, great win (against Winston County), but now we’ve got to shift our focus to Tanner and Homecoming if we’re going to keep our place at the top of this region,” he added.

The Bobcats will host the Tanner Rattlers at Parrish Stadium on Friday, October 8.