The Todd County Central Rebels survived a long game dealing with clock issues, some key turnovers, the penalty bug, and a big aerial assault from the opposing quarterback to pick up the first win of the Josh Robins era Friday night at Mortons Gap. Led by huge games from juniors Preston Moore and Omarion Riddick, the Rebels held off a late 4th quarter rally for a wild 42-39 win over the Hopkins Central Storm.
The Rebels got things going early Friday night when Moore ripped off a 47 yard run on their first possession to take a 7-0 lead. The Storm came right back down the field, scoring on a one yard run from Calil McNary to even it up at 7-7 with 5:59 to go in the first.
Just 13 seconds later, Riddick took one 80 yards to the house to put Todd Central up 14-7.
Early in the second quarter, after coming up with an interception, Hopkins Central got on the board again, this time on a touchdown run from Jordan Jackson. The extra point was blocked, and Todd County Central held on to a 14-13 lead.
Late in the 2nd quarter, the Storm moved to the lead on a 34 yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Adrian Stringer to Brian Hawkins with 1:19 to go in the half. Hopkins Central would head off to the locker room with a 20-19 lead.
With their defense cranking it up at the beginning of the 2nd half, the Rebels came out of the locker room and took the fight to the Storm. With 10:15 to go in the 3rd, Preston Moore took off on a 52 yard gallop to put the Rebels back up 20-19. Late in the quarter, Moore connected with Gavyn Nolan for a 25 yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 28-19 heading into the final 12 minutes.
Todd County looked to be ready to put the game away when Moore ran 90 yards for a score to make it 35-19 with 10:04 left in the game.
Stringer responded 32 seconds later with a 22 yard touchdown pass to Tanner Edwards to make it 35-25.
Omarion Riddick scored his second touchdown, this one a five yard run, less than a minute later to make it 42-25.
Stringer threw two touchdown passes over the next five minutes to cut the margin to 42-39. The Storm defense got a 4th down stop with one second to go in the game, but a hail mary attempt never really got going, as the Rebels held on for the win in the game, which took 3 ½ hours to play.
Omarion Riddick ran the ball 19 times for 239 yards for Todd Central, while Preston Moore had 21 carries for 195 yards, as the Rebels racked up 447 yards on the ground.
Moore was 8-20-2 through the air for 96 yards and one touchdown.
Adrian Stringer put on a show through the air for the Storm. He was 23-44-0 for 390 yards and four touchdowns.
Todd Central overcame some penalty issues over the course of the game, as the Rebels were flagged for a total of 145 yards in the contest. Hopkins Central totaled 110 penalty yards of their own on the night.
The Rebels (1-0) will return to action next Friday night as they travel to take on Caverna. Hopkins Central (0-1) will head to Owensboro Catholic for a Thursday night showdown.
