The Adairsville Tigers (5-1) beat the Coahulla Creek Colts by a score of 20-10 on Friday night.
Coahulla Creek received the opening kickoff, but they could not move the ball and had to punt early on their first possession. Adairsville made the most of their first possession, though, capping off a long drive with a 19-yard rushing touchdown from Chris Roper. Unfortunately, the Tigers missed the extra point, so they settled for a 6-0 lead with seven minutes left in the first quarter. Both teams traded a few punts following this drive, but Adairsville regained their footing on offense right before the end of the first quarter. With 1:24 left in the opening quarter, Chris Roper scored a 28-yard rushing touchdown to give the Tigers a 13-0 lead.
Coahulla Creek finally had a promising offensive possession early in the second quarter as they got into Adairsville territory for the first time. However, they faced a fourth and short, decided to go for it, and failed to convert, giving Adairsville the ball on their 11-yard line with nearly the entire second quarter left to play. Adairsville failed to score off the turnover, and this kicked off another scoring drought which lasted until the final three minutes of the second quarter.
With around three minutes left in the first half, Chris Roper fumbled, and Coahulla Creek recovered the ball on Adairsville’s 47-yard line with a fantastic opportunity to score some points. They took advantage of the takeaway, kicking a 33-yard field goal to make the score 13-3 with under a minute to go in the second quarter.
The action wasn’t over, though, as Chris Roper returned the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown to give Adairsville a 20-3 lead going into halftime. Roper was the star of the show in the first half, scoring three touchdowns as he was responsible for all of Adairsville’s points. Both teams turned the ball over on downs to kick off the third quarter, but a long pass put Coahulla Creek inside Adairsville’s five-yard line with around two minutes left in the quarter. They followed the huge play with a one-yard rushing touchdown from Payton Gordon to make the score 20-10 with 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
The Colts got the ball back after forcing the Tigers to punt and had excellent field position. However, penalties pushed them back and forced them to punt. Coahulla Creek got the ball back late in the fourth quarter and had a chance to pull off a miracle, but they got stopped on fourth down in the final minutes. This turnover on downs destroyed the Colts’ hope of winning this game. Adairsville regained possession and immediately got into victory formation to end the game and secure the 20-10 victory.
The Adairsville Tigers will travel to take on Sonoraville Phoenix on October 15th, with kickoff set for 7:30.