Tigers beat rival, move to No. 1
By By Todd Thompson, Hartselle Enquirer
DECATUR - It wasn’t a great start for the Hartselle Tigers Thursday night.
The end, however, was just about perfect. And that was enough to send the Tigers to their first perfect regular season in 19 years with a 19-16 win over rival Decatur at Ogle Stadium.
The Tigers were ranked No. 1 in Class 5A in the Alabama Sports Writers’ Association final prep poll this week.
Hartselle overcame an early 14-0 deficit and came up with a key stop on fourth-and-goal in the final minute of play to beat Decatur in Ogle Stadium for the first time since 2001.
Marquez Jones scored three touchdowns and finished with 134 yards on the ground - his eighth 100-yard game of the season - to spark the comeback.
The Tiger’ defense came up with a long list of great plays, topped off when Jackson Reeves broke up a fourth down pass in the end zone with two minutes left in the game.
Hartselle wrapped up a 10-0 regular season when Luke Bole took a snap in the closing seconds on fourth down and ran out of the end zone for a safety as time expired. Decatur fell to 7-3 overall after the non-region loss.
The Tigers will open up with Scottsboro at home Friday in the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs.
Hartselle found itself trailing for the first time since the fifth week of the season when Decatur’s Chris Coffey broke through the right side of the line and went 82 yards for a touchdown on the Red Raiders’ first possession of the game.
Decatur added to the lead when Ben Neill threw a touchdown pass to David Martin in the second quarter.
Jones got Hartselle back into the game when he scored on a 64-yard run down the sideline in front of the Tigers’ bench to trim the lead to 14-7.
He added a 1-yard touchdown run later in the quarter to make it 14-13 at the half.
Hartselle’s defense kept Decatur in check in the second half with Coffey picking up just 51 yards over the final two quarters of play.
Jones scored his third touchdown of the night on a 1-yard run in the second half to give the Tigers their first lead of the game at 19-14.
Hartselle’s defense stopped Decatur with 5:45 remaining in the game, but a fumble on the punt return gave the Red Raiders a first down at the Tigers’ 21-yard line.
After pushing to the 3, the Red Raiders’ fourth-down pass was stopped when Reeves reached in to knock the ball away from Cory Dodson.
Godsey felt he never saw one player show panic when the Tigers fell behind by two touchdowns early. And showing that kind of poise was a big test for the Hartselle players.