Tilghman wins fourth straight Rumble on the River over McCracken County

The last game the Blue Tornado saw in the 2021 season was a 33-28 loss in the Class 3A Championship game. Thompson admits that they still had a bad taste in their mouth after that game and wanted to come into the new season and make a statement. And make a statement they did, with a commanding win over their cross-town rivals.

The Mustangs started off the night on the receiving end of the opening kick, but an unsuccessful drive forced them to punt it away in hopes their defense could play the part. Tilghman came out on their first drive in nearly the same fashion as their opponents. They found themselves in a fourth and long situation, but the Blue Tornado felt their offense could make the conversion.

A 13-yard pass from Jack James to Shemari Thomas made that fourth down conversion a success in the form of a touchdown to take a 7-0 lead with 6:17 on the first quarter clock.

After another unsuccessful Mustang drive, the Blue Tornado would take over and steadily march up the field. This drive also ended in a PT touchdown, this time courtesy of Malachi Rider from a yard out. A successful PAT made it a 14-0 game with 1:15 to go in the opening quarter.

The same bold coaching decision that turned a fourth down situation into a touchdown, was made on the kick after the TD for an onside kick. That decision payed off as well as the Blue Tornado secured the kick, giving themselves prime field position before the quarter came to an end.

A deep bomb from James to LeBran McMullen in the very next play put another touchdown on the board for Tilghman, making it a 21-0 game with 1:05 left on the first quarter clock.

"We understood that we couldn't put last years team back together but we what we wanted to do was be better than that team," Thompson said. "The guys have worked really hard, we have been up and down every day because the expectations have been so high, but they came out and answered the call tonight."

The bold plays kept coming, as Tilghman turned a fake punt into a first down and big gain too for the first Tornado possession of the second quarter. Shortly after, a trick play with multiple hand-offs in the back field ended in a 27-yard TD pass to Joshua Campbell.

An interception by Darionte Ragsdale got the Blue Tornado the ball back with 6:45 left to go in the half. This gave Tilghman prime field position to score again before the first half came to an end. The touchdown came on a 27-yard pass from James to McMullen for the second TD connection between the two on the night.

This gave the home team a 35-0 advantage with 4:11 left to go in the half. Tilghman would make that a 41-0 halftime score after a 1-yard run by Kharentez Moore.

Rider came out in the second half and scored on the first drive. He took the ball half the length of the field for a touchdown as the running clock ticked down with the lopsided 48-0 score.

McCracken County found their scoring legs despite the sped up clock. They steadily marched down the field and converted on a fourth down situation in the red zone. Quarterback Pryor Lamb put the first points on the board for the Mustangs in the next play on a QB keeper and a successful PAT by Sebastian Hutchins, his first ever, would make it a 48-7 game.

Jordauyn White found one more touchdown in the Paducah Tilghman playbook with 8:43 left in the game. He scores on a 48-yard run for the last Blue Tornado score of the night.

The Mustangs had one last chance to make their mark on opening night as the clock quickly ran down. They made their way down field, once again converted on fourth down in the red zone as Lamb once again kept the ball for a touchdown.

That would be the final play of the game as the clock ticked to zero with the score reading 54-14 in favor of Tilghman for the 2022 Rumble on the River title. This is the fourth straight win for Tilghman over McCracken.

McCracken County will travel to Bowling Green (1-0) next week and Paducah Tilghman will host Graves County (0-1).