Trigg County had trouble stopping the run for the second straight week as Paducah Tilghman racked up 398 yards on the ground and ran away with a 63-21 win over the Wildcats at Perdue Field.
Damien Ford had 313 of the yards on just 13 carries. The Tilghman junior scored three touchdowns in the game and proved elusive to the Trigg defense all night.
Trigg County took the early 7-0 lead when Cam Jordan scampered around the left end for the 23-yard touchdown. Tilghman answered with a three-play scoring drive set up by a 66-yard run by Ford into the Trigg red zone. Jayden Freeman scored from five yards out to tie the game at 7-7.
Trigg’s undoing was the second quarter as Tilghman constantly pushed the tempo with their no-huddle offense. Freeman caught an 11-yard pass at the 10:55 mark of the quarter for a 14-7 Tilghman lead.
The Wildcats countered when Jordan hit Alex Curling down the middle for a 25-yard scoring strike. The extra point failed keeping Tilghman ahead 14-13.
Things went south in a hurry for the Wildcats as Tilghman broke the game open with touchdowns on their next four drives. Ford scored on runs of 3 and 58 yards which were sandwiched around a 70-yard screen pass from Cam Marshall to Freeman and a 1-yard run by Marshall. What was once a close game was now a 41-13 Tilghman lead at halftime.
Freeman added a 39-yard scoring pass to his score sheet in the third quarter and Ford added a 42-yard run midway through the third quarter to put Tilghman ahead 56-13.
Cade Bleidt scored Trigg’s final touchdown on a 20-yard run in the fourth quarter. Bleidt led the Wildcats with 82 yards on 12 carries.
Trigg County had some success running the football with 256 yards. Jordan added 80 yards on 14 carries, and Tayshaun Barker had 61 yards on eight carries.
Jordan was 6-of-20 passing for 86 yards. Barker caught two passes for 37 yards.
Aside from Ford’s big night on the ground, Freeman caught four passes for 159 yards while Marshall was 7-of-12 passing for 195 yards. Tilghman had 593 yards of total offense – the second straight week Trigg has allowed 500+ yards. It also marks the first time since 1998 that Trigg County has allowed 60+ points in consecutive weeks.
Tilghman, who improved to 10-0 all-time against Trigg County, will host DeSales next week with a 5-1 record.
Trigg County drops to 4-2 and will travel to Crittenden County next week. The Rockets lost to Union County 14-0 Friday.