Losing to archrival Giles County by one-point last week could have sent Marshall County into a late season tailspin, instead the setback spurred the Tigers on as they travelled to Spring Hill Friday where they won the Region 4-4A contest 28-7 to clinch a playoff spot.

“I think we can play with anybody in 4A football here at the end of the year,” Marshall County coach Thomas Osteen said. “This win gets us in the playoffs and I would like to get another shot at the Tullahomas and the Maplewoods of the world where we felt like we let those games slip away.”

“We are a young team, we are growing and have been through the fires all year, so hopefully we will be a tough team to beat late in the year.”

After giving up an interception return for a touchdown on their first offensive possession of the game, the Tigers shutdown the Raiders the rest of the way behind a stout defensive effort.

“This was definitely our best defensive game of the year, especially with about four or five starters out,” Osteen said. “So just a hats off to coach (Jerry) Cobb, coach (Danny) Pickle, coach Josh (Beddingfield), and coach (Ronny) Shirey for rallying those guys.”

The winless Raiders (0-8, 0-4) had eight offensive possessions in the contest and went three-and-out four times, turned the ball over on downs three times, and tossed an interception. The Tigers held Spring Hill to just 115 yards of total offense and the Raiders managed only four first downs in the game.

“We tackled better than we have all year and that showed on the scoreboard,” Osteen said. “We said tonight was about us, control what you can control.”

“You can’t control the other team, you can’t control what the coach calls, all you can control is how hard you play and what kind of teammate you are and we had a bunch of guys do that tonight.”

Marshall County (3-5, 2-2) had a solid night on offense as they gained 264 yards of total offense, including another big night from junior tailback Javarria Rucker, who toted the rock 25 times for 119 yards and a touchdown.

“Our ‘O’ line up front were dogging it, they were just taking them head on all night and killing them,” Rucker said. “They were opening up huge holes for our running backs and we were just pounding it in there to run the clock, manage the game, and win.”

“This feels good, we knew coming in here this game meant a lot more to get in the playoffs and we pulled it off, so we are thankful for the second season.”

Senior quarter Malik Thomison had 34 yards rushing and a touchdown, while completing 9-of-12 passes for 114 yards, including scoring tosses to Marcellus Campbell (66-yds.) and Ak’y Howard (20-yds.).

Marshall County took the opening kickoff and drove to the Spring Hill 40-yard line when Raiders’ defensive lineman Bubba Johnson deflected a Thomison pass that fell into the arms of Austin Williams, who returned it 62 yards for a score.

The Tigers bounced right back, embarking on a bruising, 70-yard, 15-play drive that ended on a Rucker 4-yard touchdown run with 10:48 remaining in the second quarter.

After the Marshall County defense forced a three-and-out, Thomison tossed a third down pass to Campbell in the flat and after juking a Spring Hill defender, Campbell raced untouched 66 yards for the score. John Estes booted his second successful extra point of the game and the Tigers were in front for good at 14-7 with 8:11 left in the first half.

“It was just a little screen and I was going to come back to the ball and my left tackle Marcus (McCord) made a tremendous block and after that I just beat him with speed down the sidelines,” Campbell said. “I just gave him a little something to freeze the defender so I can slow him down before I can kick the high gear on and be gone and it worked.”

After the Campbell touchdown, the Raiders mounted their best offensive drive of the contest, marching to the Marshall County 21-yard line where they were stuffed on a fourth down play, giving the ball back to the Tigers with 3:14 remaining in the first half. Marshall County was unable to add any points before the intermission and took the seven-point lead to the locker room.

Defense ruled the third quarter as both squads held firm and the Tigers got a huge break late when they recovered a muffed punt at the Spring Hill 25-yard line with 55 ticks left in the period.

Five plays later, Thomison scored on a fourth down quarterback sneak to make it a 21-7 contest after the Estes PAT kick with 9:47 remaining in the game.

Both teams were forced to punt after three-and-outs and with 5:40 remaining in the game, sophomore linebacker Christian Stacey intercepted a Stanley Worstell pass and returned it to the Spring Hill 15-yard line.

The Raiders’ defense bowed up to force a fourth down play and a Marshall County timeout with 3:33 left in the game. Instead of attempting a field goal, Osteen went for the jugular and it worked as Thomison found Howard open in the end zone for a touchdown.

The Tigers shut down the home team the rest of the game and left Spring Hill with the hard-fought victory.

“It was a shutout up front, our ‘D’ was killing it, they are one of the best ‘D’ Lines around and they are always in the backfield bothering somebody,” Campbell said. “We were picking off passes, deflecting passes, we had a few busted coverages, but other than that we controlled the game.”

Marshall County entertains the 6A Brentwood Bruins (6-2) Friday at Preston Hopkins Field in Lewisburg for senior night in the final regular season home game for the Tigers.

“They (Brentwood) are one of the best teams in 6A in the state,” Osteen said. “I don’t know if they are as quite as good as they were last year, but they are still awesome. They are the next team on our schedule and it’s going to be a tough game.”

“I hate to be playing out of region this late in year, especially against someone like that, but that is the cards we are dealt to be home on senior night and it will be a great night to honor those seniors.”

The Tigers travel to Nolensville (5-4, 2-2) next week for the regular season finale in a contest that will decide playoff seeding for third and fourth place in the region standings. The Knights have a bye this week.

“I feel like our schedule is very hard and our record could very easily be opposite of what it is,” Campbell said. “I feel like we are one of the best teams in Tennessee, our record just doesn’t show it, but in the postseason it doesn’t matter about the record, it is zero-zero and whoever we match up against.”

Marshall County 0 14 0 14-28

Spring Hill 7 0 0 0-7

Scoring Plays

First Quarter

Spring Hill-Austin Williams 62-yard interception return, Carter Hurd PAT, 8:17.

Second Quarter

Marshall County-Javarria Rucker 4-yard run, John Estes PAT, 10:48.

Marshall County-Marcellus Campbell 66-yard pass from Malik Thomison, Estes PAT, 8:11.

Fourth Quarter

Marshall County-Thomison 1-yard run, Estes PAT, 9:47.

Marshall County-A’ky Howard 20-yard pass from Thomison, Estes PAT, 3:26.

Team Stats

Total Yards: Marshall County 264, Spring Hill 115.

Rushing: Marshall County 147, Spring Hill 80.

Passing: Marshall County 117, Spring Hill 35.

First Downs: Marshall County 10, Spring Hill 4.

Penalties: Marshall County 5-50, Spring Hill 8-65.

Turnovers: Marshall County 2, Spring Hill 1.

Marshall County Offense

Rushing: Javarria Rucker 25-119-TD, Malik Thomison 15-34-TD, Lamarion Pierce 2-7, Elijah Taylor 5-(-6), Bryson Hammons 1-(-7).

Passing: Malik Thomison 9-12-114-2TD-INT., Bryson Hammons 0-1-0.

Receiving: Marcellus Campbell 3-71-TD, Ak’y Howard 1-20-TD, Javarria Rucker 4-14, Elijah Taylor 1-12.

Kicking

Kickoffs: John Estes 5-253-2TB.

PAT: John Estes 4-4.

Punting: Joseph Gold 2-69.

Returns

Kickoffs: Javarria Rucker 1-50, Marcellus Campbell 1-20.