The Russellville High School varsity football team’s 2024 season came to a close in the first round of the AHSAA Class 5A playoffs Friday night as the Wenonah Dragons (8-3), the third seed out of Region 5, edged by the Golden Tigers 30-28 in overtime. In the program’s 38 playoff appearances, the result marked just the eighth time Russellville (7-4) has been eliminated in the opening round.
The game for neutrals was a thrilling tale of two halves that needed more than 48 minutes to decide the outcome; for Russellville players, coaches, and fans it was a heartbreaking postseason defeat, the result of a few too many mistakes and missed opportunities in the final 24 minutes of regulation.
“I thought our kids were prepared to win. I thought our coaches were prepared to win. Ultimately we made a couple mistakes at inopportune times that we couldn’t overcome,” first-year Russellville head coach Dustin Goodwin told the Franklin Free Press. “That tends to be what happens in the playoffs.
“We knew we were going to have to play a game where the entire team played well to get it done. For the most part I thought they played hard and played well, but when most every game comes down to four or five plays, unfortunately we didn’t win those four or five plays tonight. Ultimately, that’s what cost us the game,” he added of the defeat, Russellville’s first overtime playoff loss since the 1987 state championship game.
The contest started how they’ve usually done for the Golden Tigers this season: with the opponents opening the scoring. For the first time in a long time, Russellville took the opening kickoff and started out on offense but turned it over on downs later in the drive, giving the Dragons the ball.
Wenonah took advantage and with its effective ground game efficiently moved the ball down the field on the Golden Tigers, scoring from 10 yards out with 8:19 to go in the first quarter to make it 8-0.
Then, again, as Russellville usually does after trailing early, the hosts answered with a score to tie it up 8-8. A bruising 42-yard run by junior running back Cameron Phinizee leveled it with 3:12 to go in the first. The touchdown was Phinizee’s 28th of the season.
Between both teams there were over 12 possessions in the first half alone, thanks to turnovers and quick three-and-out drives, but the second quarter belonged to Russellville. The Golden Tigers scored the only points of that period and used one of their three forced turnovers in the first half to put them up by two scores.
With 4:31 remaining before halftime, RHS freshman quarterback Whit Goodwin scampered in from 15 yards out to give the Golden Tigers their first lead, 15-8. On the ensuing kickoff, Wenonah’s kick returner, instead of running north and south ran, from about three yards out, parallel to his own goal line. It turned out to be a big mistake for the Dragons as the returner was crushed by a member of the coverage team and coughed the ball up in his endzone. RHS sophomore Tarus Davis fell on top of the football, and 10 seconds after scoring their last touchdown the Golden Tigers were adding to their lead.
Following the extra point Russellville led Wenonah 22-8. It was a lead, thanks to a Keifer Hallmark interception that kept the Dragons from scoring, the Golden Tigers would take into the locker room at halftime. At the break, Goodwin said, the Golden Tigers felt optimistic about where they were at.
“We definitely thought we had momentum and were in a good spot at halftime,” Goodwin said. “We just talked to our guys about paying attention to technique and doing what we were asking them to do. Some of the things (Wenonah) got us on wasn’t really scheme but just us trying to do too much at times in different spots, so the message was really, ‘just keep doing what you’re doing.’”
After the intermission, however, things started to go sideways for the home team.
In the final 24 minutes the good vibes from the first half were not enough to keep the Russellville offense going; the Wenonah defense pitched a shutout, and the Dragons scored 14 unanswered points starting with a long, methodical drive on their first possession of the third quarter. The Dragons ate over six minutes of the clock, and the drive culminated in a short passing touchdown to pull the visitors within eight points after the failed two-point conversion.
Leading by a touchdown the Golden Tigers had a chance to retake a two-score advantage, but Whit Goodwin was picked off in the endzone. The Dragons weren’t able to capitalize on the turnover as their own quarterback later threw an interception to senior Jah Williams, but the failure to answer Wenonah’s touchdown represented an opportunity missed by the Golden Tigers.
“We wanted to get the ball down the field any way we can. We had a hard time getting open,” Goodwin said. “(Wenonah is) what we knew they were: big, athletic, fast. So, we didn’t want our defense to be on the field all night. We were getting good yardage until the mistakes happened and those are tough to overcome.
“There ain’t a whole lot of people scoring against (Wenonah) throughout the course of the year, and there’s a reason for that,” Goodwin added. “When you have negative plays offensively or you give up big runs or big passes in critical times defensively, you can’t do that in these games.”
In the fourth quarter, the Russellville offense committed more errors and these did end up proving costly, the price tangible on the scoreboard.
The first was a bad snap that sailed over Goodwin’s head and ended, fortunately for Russellville, as a safety and not a Wenonah touchdown. That made it 22-16.
A few minutes later, with the Russellville offense still unable to gain any traction or sustained momentum, Wenonah got the ball back and eventually punched it in from a yard out to tie it up at 22-22, a blocked extra point the only thing keeping the Dragons from taking the outright lead with 2:54 left.
Despite giving up their advantage, the game was still there for the Golden Tigers to win. Russellville got the ball back, but disaster struck again on fourth and short. Another bad snap flew past the quarterback Goodwin and was recovered by Wenonah in Russellville territory with just over a minute left in the final quarter of play. It was another missed chance that doubled as an error, giving the Dragons excellent field position with time running out.
Fortunately for the Golden Tigers, their defense, as it has all season long, came up with a massive stop to keep them in contention. On fourth and inches, with less than 30 seconds left, the Russellville D won a race to the sticks and shoved the Wenonah ball carrier out of bounds just shy of the marker. The stubborn defensive effort forced the turnover on downs and sent the game into overtime tied at 22-22.
“I think our whole team played with great effort all night,” Goodwin said. “Our defense came up with some big stops, even blocked an extra point at one point. They gave us a chance.”
In the overtime period Wenonah started on offense first after Russellville won the coin toss. A short pass play got the Dragons into the endzone a couple plays later and another one put them up by eight points, 30-22.
On Russellville’s overtime possession, the Golden Tigers needed all four plays to get into the endzone, but the freshman Goodwin eventually found receiver Javon Poss on a three-yard pass play to make it 30-28. The game on the line, Russellville had to convert the two-point try, but running back Tarus Davis, spelling a visibly hobbled Phinizee, couldn’t find his way across the line. Davis was stopped just shy of the endzone and the two-point conversion failed, ending the Golden Tigers’ season.
“We don’t understand why things like this tend to happen, but you’ve got two groups of people fighting for the same thing and someone is ultimately going to lose that fight. Unfortunately that was us,” Goodwin said he told his players after the loss. “We’ll wake up tomorrow and maybe one day we’ll realize why it happened the way it did and get something out of it that makes us better people down the road.”
Goodwin added his appreciation for the team’s seniors after the defeat, which was the final football game as a Golden Tiger for all and the final football game—period—for many.
“I’m thankful for our seniors and the trust they placed in us, the effort they gave us, and we really valued the time we were able to spend together,” Goodwin said.
After the game Goodwin was asked to give his assessment of the 2024 campaign as a whole. With the emotions still raw, the head coach admitted more time will be needed to view the season through sober, nuanced glasses but he said he was proud of the way his team stepped up and developed throughout the year.
“I thought they played with great effort all year, and in some ways they exceeded expectations,” Goodwin said. “When I was interviewing for the job or even after I first got here, you had people tell you you’re gonna struggle early because you lost 27 seniors.
“We had a lot of inexperienced guys that were put on the field for the first time for the most part, and I thought they continued to grow over the course of the season and get better. A lot of that has to do with their character and the trust they placed in our coaches. For that I’m really grateful,” he added. “Even though we lost tonight, I’m still really proud of our team and love our players.”
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