RHS 14, BCHS 6

Bears snap five-game losing streak with delayed Homecoming win over Tigers

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ROBERTSDALE — After starting 3-0, the Robertsdale Golden Bears snapped a five-game losing streak with a 14-6 victory Friday night over the Baldwin County High Tigers in the Bears’ final game of a topsy-turvy 2020 season at J.D. Sellars Stadium on Homecoming night that was delayed by Hurricane Sally.

Homecoming festivities were postponed after the scheduled game between the Golden Bears and Satsuma Gators on Sept. 25 was cancelled following Hurricane Sally and Robertsdale’s game against Gulf Shores, originally scheduled for Sept. 18, was moved to Sept. 28.

“It’s always good to send your seniors out with a victory in their last game,” said RHS second-year Head Coach Kyle Stanford. “I can’t say enough about all of our players and coaches. There have been a lot of ups and downs this season. They never gave up, kept working hard and it paid off tonight.”

Junior running back Tavan Curry led the Bears with 184 yards on 30 carries, going 74 yards on 12 carries in the Bears final drive of the contest, including a 26-yard scoring run with 1:18 remaining on the clock.

“Anytime the game is on the line, we know we can give the ball to No. 8,” Stanford said. “He really stepped up and made some big runs when we needed it on that last drive to seal the victory for us.”

Robertsdale scored on its opening drive of the contest marching 65 yards in seven plays, capped by a 35-yard touchdown run by senior running back Logan Wilson.

From there, the Bear defense took over, holding the Tigers to just 145 yards of total offense and only 29 yards on the ground, forcing three punts, two interceptions, a fumble and a turnover on downs. Tiger quarterback Ry-Derius Brown was sacked three times for total losses of 18 yards, completing 6 of 15 passes with two interceptions for 113 yards.

“Our defense really stepped up,” Stanford said. “They were given a lot of short fields to work with and they took the great plan the coaches gave them and got the job done.”

BCHS scored its only touchdown of the contest, starting from their own 34 after a block-in-the-back penalty negated a long return by junior Tiaquelin Mims.

Brown completed a 28-yard pass to Ky McNulty, then converted a third-and-15 with a 29-yard strike to Mims after recovering his own fumble at the 30-yard line to set up first-and-goal from the 1.

The Bears were able to hold the Tigers on two tries from the 1 before Mims fought his way to the endzone on an end-around to score with 8:51 to play. BCHS missed the extra-point try, however, leaving the score at 7-6 and Robertsdale chewed up 7:33 off the clock, driving 80 yards to score with just over a minute to play.

The Tigers ran just four more plays as Brown was intercepted on fourth-and-long by Bear sophomore Haven Davis.

Robertsdale finished their season with a 4-5 overall record, 2-5 in 6A Region 1, their best record since going 8-2 in 2001, their best record ever in 6A. The Tigers (2-6, 2-5) will finish their season at home Friday night in a non-region contest against the LeFlore Rattlers.