Ridgeland rains on Adairsville's parade
The past two years have seen the Adairsville Tigers spoil the football season opener for the Ridgeland Panthers.
Last Friday night at Bowers and Painter Field, Ridgeland gave Adairsville a great big dose of its own medicine.
Led by 164 rushing yards and four touchdowns from junior Jalyn Shelton, and spurred by what was at times a smothering defense, the Panthers simply dominated the Class 3A Tigers, 49-7, on a damp, rainy night in Rossville.
Adairsville, an 11win state quarterfinal team in 2015, came into the game looking for replacements for some key playmakers that had graduated. Instead, they spent the night looking at the backs of Ridgeland jerseys as the Panthers raced past, and at times, through them.
Ridgeland put up 304 yards of offense in the first half alone as they build a 35-0 lead at intermission. The second half was played with a running clock.
The Panther defense swarmed and overwhelmed the Tigers most of the night, especially in the first 24 minutes as they held them to 39 total yards and just two first downs.
Adairsville ended the night with 149 total yards and six first downs. A 75-yard drive at the beginning of the third quarter accounted for half of those yards and led to their only score of the night as Chad Lowery slipped in behind the Ridgeland secondary to haul in a 59-yard TD pass from Roger Redd.
“I didn’t like starting off flat, defensively, there in the second half,” Ridgeland head coach Wesley Tankersley lamented. “But the kids played very hard and didn’t make a ton of mistakes. There’s plenty of stuff to work on and plenty of things we’re going to have to get better at, but tonight was definitely a good first effort.”
The game began with an exchange of punts before the Ridgeland offense got cranked up. A 23-yard run by Shelton and a 24-yard pass from Ivy Boehm to Markeion Jones helped overcome three early Panther penalties.
Then on second-and6 from the Adairsville 46, Shelton found a seam, stiff-armed a defender and managed to stay off his knees on a would-be tackle before the second effort paid off with six points. Freshman Conner Middleton booted the first of his seven extra points to stake the Panthers to the early lead.
Eli Foshay recovered a Tiger fumble two plays later and Ridgeland clicked off a short 29-yard drive, capped by a 2-yard Shelton TD run. After another Adairsville punt, the Panthers went 69 yards in eight plays. This time the score came via the air as Stephon Walker took a short screen pass from Boehm, juked a cornerback at the line and raced 25 yards to put Ridgeland up 21-0 less than 90 seconds into the second quarter.
Ridgeland’s next drive would end on a fumble at the Adairsville 1-yard line, but the defense would force a punt and the offense would put up another scoring drive. Shelton did the honors again by taking a pitch and going virtually untouched for the final 10 yards, aided by a huge block by Skye Wilson.
One final first-half touchdown came with just 31 seconds left as quarterback Tanner Hill hit Walker on a beautiful 15-yard fade route in the corner of the end zone to cap a six-play, 60-yard march.
After Adairsville scored to open the third quarter, Ridgeland immediately answered. Jordan Hughley turned on the jets for a 40-yard end run before Shelton punched it in from two yards out to make it 42-7.
Ridgeland’s offensive reserves would tack on one final touchdown early in the fourth as Desmond Johnson showed off his moves on a 59-yard scoring scamper that included a great cutback at the 10yard line to avoid a hit.
Boehm was 5 of 6 in the air for 84 yards, while Hill’s TD pass to Walker was his only attempt of the night.
“Ivy and Tanner both did a good job tonight of doing what we asked them to do,” Tankersley said. “They also made some plays tonight and if they can do that, it will open up the running game big time for us.”
A total of 10 different Panthers had at least one carry as they rushed 36 times as a team for 336 yards in the abbreviated contest. Johnson had 60 yards on two carries. Hughley had 46 yards on three carries and Grayson Moore picked up 37 yards on just two rushes.
“(Depth) is the biggest thing right now with our offense,” Tankersley added. “No one is being selfish and everybody is ready to go at any time. I think that makes you a lot harder to stop when you play that way because it’s hard to key on one guy. Jalyn had a great night, but really everyone that touched the ball had a good night.”
Christian Steele had 42 yards on 14 carries for Adairsville, while Redd was 3 of 7 in the air for 75 yards.
Ridgeland (1-0) will travel to Lindale this Friday to take on Pepperell.