Caleb Suggs

Hartselle Enquirer

From the opening kickoff, the Hartselle Tigers put their foot on the gas and didn’t let up. Hartselle traveled to Athens this week for their first region game of the season. The Tigers came in with a 2-0 record after non-region wins over Cullman and Lawrence County, while Athens was coming in with a 0-1 record after an opening week loss to Sparkman. A win here was important for both teams as every region win counts in Class 6A region 8.

Hartselle opened the game with a quick four-play 70 yard drive. Taylor Easterling carried three times for 20 yards before Keondre Swoopes took it 50 yards for the score. After forcing Athens to go three and out, Hartselle wasted no time in getting back to the endzone as Luke Godsey found Riley Wood on the first play of the drive for a 79 yard score.

After a couple of drives that went nowhere, Hartselle got back to business in the second quarter. Swoopes carried for 32 yards into the redzone. Two plays later and Easterling ran in from 11 yards out to put the Tigers up 21-0.

The offensive onslaught continued on the Tiger’s next drive. Godsey once again found Wood, this time for a spectacular 30 yard catch on the sideline to move Hartselle into Athens’ territory. The Tigers capped off the drive when Godsey called his own number and ran in from seven yards out to make the lead now 28-0.

Athens finally got on the board late in the first half when Ke’Andre Jones returned a kickoff 82 yards for a score. However, once Hartselle got the ball back they marched right back down the field. A 43-yard pass from Godsey to Easterling got them down to the 22 yard line. Swoopes finished the drive from there as he ran it in from 22 yards out to give Hartselle a 35-7 halftime lead.

Despite starting the second half with an onside kick, Hartselle chose to play conservative and chew clock. The Tigers attempted no downfield passes in the second half. Still, the defense continued to wreak havoc on the Athens’ offense. The Tigers did not give up a single offensive point and forced two-second half turnovers, one of which was an interception by Jackson Terry. Hartselle went on to win the game 35-7, improving to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in region play. Hartselle finished the night with 400 yards of total offense. Luke Godsey had 174 yards passing and a touchdown to go along with a rushing touchdown as well. Keondre Swoopes led the charge on the ground with 132 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Athens finished with just 185 yards of offense.

Despite playing a rough second half, head coach Bob Godsey was proud of his team’s first region win. “We’ll take it. I really like the way our guys came out and played in the first half,” Godsey said. “We still have a lot of things we have to clean up, which is exciting because that means we’re learning and getting better. We’ve got a tough road starting next week with Florence and it keeps rolling from there.”

For the second straight week, the Tiger defense held the opposing offense to zero offensive points, which gives them extra confidence as they dive into the heart of region play. “It feels good, we’ve put in a lot of work for this,” Hartselle linebacker Seth Mayfield said. “We kept going tonight and we picked our intensity up each play. Now we have to carry that on to Florence.”

The first week of region play shed a lot of light on what is to come this season for region 8. Hartselle, along with Austin and Muscle Shoals all came away with big wins, Austin 49-0 over Decatur and Muscle Shoals 47-29 over Florence, that showed they’re by far the best teams in the region. Hartselle will host Florence next week before traveling to Muscle Shoals the week after.