Adairsville tried to trick Ringgold on the opening kickoff by attempting an onside kick. However, Ringgold recovered with excellent field position for their first drive. Adairsville’s defense stood firm, though, and forced Ringgold to punt on their first drive despite being in a disadvantageous position. After a couple of punts from both teams, Ringgold scored on a 33 yard passing touchdown from Mason Parker to take a 7-0 lead with 7:55 left in the first quarter. Adairsville responded with a touchdown pass of their own to tie the score 7-7 with 4:51 left in the first quarter.

Adairsville’s defense has done a great job of forcing turnovers all season long and, early in the second quarter it recovered a fumble with a chance to take the lead. Unfortunately, Adairsville failed to take advantage of the takeaway and was forced to punt the ball back to Ringgold. Ringgold punished Adairsville for failing to score off the turnover by exploding for a 42 yard passing touchdown, which put them ahead 14-7 with 8:12 left in the first half. After about seven and a half minutes of punting, Ringgold drove down the field and scored on another deep touchdown pass from Mason Parker to go up 21-7 going into halftime.

Adairsville struggled on both sides of the ball in the first half, but their defense was the biggest issue. Ringgold faced no issues moving the ball and it had three explosive plays with all three being touchdowns.

Adairsville’s defense stepped it up in the third quarter as it held Ringgold scoreless for the entire quarter. Their offense stepped up as well, as it scored on a 66 yard touchdown pass to make the score 21-13 with 41 seconds left in the third quarter. Adairsville missed a PAT, which proved costly late. Ringgold responded with a long drive that put them inside the red zone, but couldn’t score a touchdown and settled for a 22 yard field goal to extend their lead to 24-13 with around six minutes left in the third quarter.

Facing an 11-point deficit, Adairsville needed to score on their next drive and did just that, throwing a 15-yard touchdown pass to make the score 24-19 with 4:51 left in the fourth quarter. It attempted a 2-point conversion to make it a 3-point game, but was not successful.

Ringgold drove down the field on the ensuing possession and were in position to at least kick a field goal, but took a huge sack on third down that knocked it out of field goal range. This was a devastating play for the Ringgold offense, but its punting unit pinned Adairsville on its own 2-yard line with around three minutes left in the game.

Adairsville had one possession to try and take the lead. The Tigers drove down the field fairly easily and got into Ringgold territory, but a big sack pushed them back and forced them to go for it on fourth down. Andrew Gough heaved the ball into the end zone looking for a miracle but the pass fell incomplete and Ringgold held on for the 24-19 victory.

Adairsville played extremely well in the second half, but just couldn’t do enough offensively to overcome their struggles in the first half.

The Adairsville Tigers will travel to take on the Coahulla Creek Colts on October 8th, with kickoff set for 7:30.