Red Bay escapes late, beats Belgreen 24-19 in region battle

The Belgreen High School and Red Bay High School varsity football programs met for the first time Friday night, in a gridiron showdown that came down to the final seconds of the game.

The Belgreen Bulldogs (2-2, 1-1 Class 1A Region 7) came into Fred Bostick Jr. Stadium and gave the No. 6-ranked Red Bay Tigers (4-0, 2-0 1A R7) all they wanted and more, but the hosts ultimately made a few more plays in the second half to comeback and survive by a final score of 24-19.

“Credit to Belgreen. They executed well. Offensively, they did a great job,” Red Bay head coach Tyler Jeffreys said.

“I hated that it ended close, but our guys showed a little bit of leadership and overcame some adversity, so I’m proud of them for that,” he added.

Belgreen kicked off to Red Bay to start the game, a squib kick that the Bulldogs nearly came away with. The Bulldogs missed that first opportunity, but they came away with the second one: a fumbled snap on Red Bay’s first play from scrimmage.

“We started the game off with a fumble,” Jeffreys said. “We haven’t turned the ball over all year, but we started the game with a turnover.

“We gave Belgreen hope, and they executed well,” he added.

BHS senior Ethan Dawson fell on the loose ball, putting the visitors in great starting field position at the Red Bay 39 yard line. The Bulldogs took advantage of the short field, scoring later on a 25-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Rush Berryman to senior receiver Clayton Mitchell to give them a 7-0 lead.

The score remained 7-0 for the rest of the first quarter, but Belgreen would find the endzone again in the second.

Following an RBHS punt, Belgreen drove 47 yards for its second score. Highlighted by a fourth-down conversion and an 18-yard pass from Berryman to senior Sam Hamilton, the drive was capped by a one-yard touchdown run by Berryman to make it 13-0.

“Our guys played hard and did a great job at executing our game plan,” Belgreen head coach Jonathan Raper said.

That game plan gave the Tigers some fits, especially in the first half, Red Bay’s second-year head coach said.

“They did some things in the game that we have not seen,” Jeffreys said of Belgreen’s offense. “It’s really tough on the defense to have to adjust to something like that on the fly.”

Red Bay was eventually able to respond with a 31-yard touchdown run by junior Davian Colburn to cut the Tigers’ deficit to 13-6, the score the game would take into halftime, but it was clear to Jeffreys and his coaching staff his team would need to shake things up.

“During halftime we made some adjustments to slow (Belgreen) down,” Jeffreys said.

“Going in we found some ways to adjust, but really we were just trying to get on the edge,” he added. “We’re really young in a lot of places, so we have to keep getting better—and we did in the second half.”

Out of the break the Red Bay defense forced Belgreen to punt on its first drive of the second half. The Tigers followed up the defensive effort with a good offensive one: A long, 69-yard drive concluded in the endzone after a one-yard touchdown run by Colburn. The Tigers still trailed after the failed two-point attempt but the score cut Belgreen’s advantage to one point, 13-12.

Later in the third quarter, a six-yard touchdown run by junior Logan Alexander pushed Belgreen’s lead back up to seven points. The Bulldogs would have other opportunities to score as the game entered the fourth quarter, but the Tigers’ defense did not break again. Alexander’s TD dash would prove to be the final endzone call for the visitors.

Early in the fourth quarter, another Colburn touchdown run, this one from 11 yards out, once again cut Belgreen’s lead to a single point, 19-18. Then, following a long Belgreen punt, Red Bay put together a 78-yard drive culminating in a go-ahead touchdown and the hosts’ first lead of the ballgame. After three straight plays from inside the three-yard line in which the Bulldog defense stubbornly kept the Tigers out, Red Bay was finally able to get across the goal line on a one-yard run by Colburn to make it 24-19, RBHS with less than a minute to play.

“There’s something to be said about these kids coming back from that deficit the whole game and finding a way at the end,” Jeffreys said of his team.

Belgreen, which had led the game for 47 minutes, was finally down but was certainly not out of it. The Tigers would have to find one more stop to win the game.

A good kickoff return by Belgreen’s Isaac Hammond put the Bulldogs in striking distance at the Red Bay 35 yard line with less than 20 seconds left. A play later a screen pass to Ethan Dawson plus a roughing the passer penalty set the visitors up at the 11 yard line for one final play. With the last few seconds ticking off the clock, the BHS quarterback Berryman scrambled to his left and found an open Hamilton, but the receiver was stopped short of the goal line, tackled by two Red Bay defenders at the two as the scoreboard clock hit triple zeroes.

“Our team played well. We fought and played hard all night long, we just couldn’t make enough plays at the end of it,” Raper said.

“I’m very proud of this group of young men. They executed and did everything we asked them to do,” he added. “We’re disappointed we didn’t win the game and we’re not satisfied with losing, but someone has to win and someone has to lose. I’m not disappointed at all in these players or anything they’ve done.”

The 24-19 victory for Red Bay kept the Tigers perfect in region play at 2-0 and dropped the Bulldogs to 1-1 in Region 7.

For Red Bay, the hard-fought contest provided lessons (hopefully) to be learned as the Tigers prepare for their next region game—and first road game—at Cherokee on September 18.

“The past two weeks we haven’t practiced well, and I’ve said. It’s come back to bite us. Hopefully we’ll take ownership of that and get better,” Jeffreys said.

“What we have to take from this (Belgreen game) going into the next game is our focus and preparation has to be better. It starts on Monday and it’s got to continue throughout the week,” he added. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting ready to play and playing to our standard, not everyone else’s.”

For Belgreen, just four games into its first varsity campaign, going toe-to-toe with a top 10 team has shown the Bulldogs can compete with anyone if they play with the competency, determination and effort shown Friday night. BHS is set to host region foe Hackleburg for its next game.

“Hackleburg is a very good team,” Raper said. “We’ll have to play exceptionally well again for us to have a chance to win the football game. We’ll have to play hard and play assignment football and do our job. We’ll have to execute our game plan to the best of our ability and have everybody on the same page, but I think if we do all that then we’ll have a chance to compete and be successful.”