The Russellville Golden Tigers collected a hard-earned 45-35 homecoming win over the Austin Black Bears on Friday night.
Russellville finished the regular season 9-1 overall and tied with Florence with a 6-1 region record, but the Falcons earned the first seed due to the tiebreaking head-to-head win over RHS.
RHS received the opening kickoff versus Austin and a long return by Tarus Davis set the Golden Tigers up to score early. Two plays later, Davis scored the first of his five touchdowns of the contest on a 1-yard run. Anddy Mojica added the extra-point kick to make the score 7-0.
Austin scored for the first time on an 85-yard touchdown pass with 2:58 to go in the opening quarter, but Russellville blocked the extra-point kick and kept the lead. A long Russellville drive followed, and it produced points when Mojica kicked a 32-yard field goal to make the score 10-6.
The Golden Tigers went up 17-6 when quarterback Tripp Cleveland passed to Davis for a 23-yard touchdown. Austin then threatened to score just before the half, but RHS blocked a field goal attempt.
Austin’s first drive of the second half produced points on a 29-yard touchdown run, but the try for two points failed and R...