Jakobe Bridges (13) hauls in a touchdown pass from Cam Jordan in the third quarter of their game with Paducah Tilghman Friday. (Ashlyn Brown Photo)
If you would have told Coby Lewis that Trigg County would score 27 points and total 258 yards of offense against Paducah Tilghman Friday, he probably would have taken it. However, he wouldn’t want the 542 rushing yards the Blue Tornado racked up in their 51-27 win over the Wildcats at Perdue Field.
Tilghman abandoned their normal wishbone attack in favor of a pro-style I-formation with starting quarterback Cam Marshall and running back Mikal Askew sitting out with injuries. The result was 58 carries for 542 yards and three running backs averaging over 11 yards a carry. Sophomore Jarmorie Sabbs ran for 231 yards on just 15 carries and had two of Tilghman’s seven rushing touchdowns.
Junior Damien Ford ran for 156 yards on 14 carries and added two more scores before leaving the game with a leg injury in the second half.
Tilghman used their ability to run the football to jump out to a 20-0 first quarter on TD runs by Ford (5 yards), Tay Shawn Carruthers (7 yards) and Ford (69 yards).
Trigg County answered when a Jakobe Bridges 37-yard punt return helped set up a 1-yard scoring run by quarterback Cam Jordan with 9:01 left in the first half.
Lance Butler nailed a 21-yard field goal to put Tilghman ahead 23-7 with 6:25 left in the half.
Sabbs’ first touchdown run came on a 60-yard run on their next possession. Trailing 30-7, the Wildcats got a 2-yard run from Bridges to draw to within 30-14. Tilghman got greedy right before halftime and tried to throw the football despite 340 first half rushing yards. Malachi Kirby’s pass was intercepted by Jacob Kent and returned 55 yards for a touchdown and a 30-21 score with Tilghman ahead at the half.
The little-used sophomore added a 26-yard run on the ensuing drive to put Tilghman ahead 37-21. While Trigg answered with 13-yard scoring pass to Bridges to make the score 37-27 with 4:13 left in the third quarter, they would get no closer.
Tilghman ran a total of 61 plays for 589 total yards compared to Trigg County’s 41 plays for 258 yards. Jordan carried 23 times for 89 yards and was 7-of-18 passing for 97 yards. Bridges caught four passes for 50 yards and had 19 rushing yards.
Trigg County fell to 0-9 all-time against Paducah Tilghman, with the last eight coming since their bump to Class 3A in 2011. The 27 points by the Wildcats are the most in those nine games.
Paducah Tilghman (5-2, 1-1) has a bye week next week before heading to Union County Oct. 12.
Trigg County (4-3, 1-1) will travel to Caldwell County next week for the 139 Bowl looking to snap a five-game losing streak to their border rivals.
