Russellville gets back to winning ways with 56-8 rout of Class 4A Hatton

After suffering a heartbreaking 50-49 loss to region rival Fairview in a three-overtime thriller last week, the Russellville High School varsity football team (5-2, 3-1) rebounded by routing Class 4A Hatton (4-3, 3-2) 56-8 at Golden Tiger Stadium on Friday night.

“It’s definitely big to get back in the win column and get the bad taste out of your mouth,” said Russellville head coach Dustin Goodwin.

Though the game ended in a whopping victory for the Golden Tigers, it wasn’t the most energetic or convincing of starts for the hosts. After Hatton drew first blood, marching 75 yards on the game’s opening possession, the Golden Tigers struggled with turnovers, missed chances on opponent turnovers, and penalties. 

Russellville did respond—the Golden Tigers went into the halftime break up 21-8 through a passing and a rushing touchdown by freshman quarterback Whit Goodwin in the first quarter and a rushing score by junior running back Cameron Phinizee in the second. Still, it was evident there were some areas Russellville needed to improve on in the second half.

“We definitely felt like we had to clean up some things at halftime, especially offensively,” Goodwin said. “Defensively, outside of the first drive, I thought we played pretty well and we tackled much better.

“We were able to clean some of that stuff up, and I thought we executed much better in the second half,” he added.

Indeed.

The Golden Tiger team that came out of the locker room after the intermission took a swatter to the Hornets and exterminated any hopes of a comeback pretty quickly. The Russellville defense, in addition to the four caused turnovers in the first half, forced a few more in the second and pitched a shutout after the opening drive of the contest.

“We want our kids to be able to play fast and execute what they’re asked to do,” Goodwin said. “I thought, for the most part, we were able to do that (on defense) tonight. The (Hatton) quarterback got away from us a few times—he’s a special player, there’s no denying that—but all in all, I’m proud of the kids.”

Meanwhile, the offense spread the ball around to a number of different playmakers and capitalized on Hatton’s mistakes.

The quarterback Goodwin, who threw a touchdown to senior receiver Gunner Sappington in the first quarter, hit another senior, Ty Willis, on a 51-yard touchdown pass to start the third; it was Willis’ first touchdown of the year. Later on in the game, in the fourth quarter, Goodwin would sling a short touchdown pass to senior Jah Williams for the quarterback’s season-high third passing TD of the night.

Up 28-8, Phinizee, the sixth-leading rusher in the country going into the game, grabbed his second and final rushing touchdown of the night midway through the third quarter, hustling 30 yards for the score to make it 35-8. After Williams’ touchdown reception made it 42-8, Zay Hubbard followed it up immediately with a scoop-and-score on the ensuing kickoff return, extending the Golden Tigers’ lead to 41 points.

The final touchdown of the game was scored by sophomore running back Tarus Davis from 45-yards out. Davis, who got the start at running back over Phinizee against the Hornets, put together a solid performance with the carries he was given.

“In a non-region game we wanted to give (Davis) an opportunity to start the game and see how he responded, so we did that,” Goodwin said. “Then when Cam (Phinizee) came in, he did what Cam does and had a nice night, as well.”

On the night, seven different Golden Tigers found the endzone with six different players scoring on offense. Goodwin said it wasn’t necessarily planned that way, but it was good to see the wealth spread around and more players get rewarded.

“I’m happy to see different guys get in the endzone,” Goodwin said. “We spread it around and saw several different things. Seeing several different guys scoring, it’s fun to see. It’s not really by design, it’s just sort of the way everything worked out.”

The 48-point win was the largest margin of victory for the Golden Tigers this season and gives Russellville the series advantage and bragging rights after the first ever meeting between the two programs.

Goodwin said the big non-region win should serve as a shot in the arm for his team as the Golden Tigers turn their attention back to region play. Russellville will hit the road for its final two region contests, starting with West Point next Friday, and will need to be locked in.

“We’re back in region play next week and those (games) are the ones at this point that set you up for the playoffs,” Goodwin said. “We’ve gotta come back ready to work on Monday and do the best we can to put us in the best position possible to make plays and win that football game.”