Simply put, the move to Class 3A football has not treated Trigg County kindly.
The Wildcats fell to Paducah Tilghman 55-22 Friday at McRight Field in the first round of the Class 3A football playoffs. It was Trigg’s ninth loss in 10 postseason games since bumping up from 2A a decade ago.
The final three minutes of the first half decided the game as Tilghman broke a 14-all tie with three scores to grab a 35-14 lead at intermission.
Tilghman’s defense got the first points of the night when a pass from Jacob Wease was deflected and grabbed by Leyton Patterson who rumbled 28 yards to the end zone for the big boy touchdown with 4:17 left in the first quarter.
Trigg tied the game just over a minute later when Wease connected on a pair of passes, and Kelsey Parham finished off the drive with a 25-yard scoring run.
Tilghman retook the lead on the first play of the second quarter when Jack James hit Darionte Ragsdale for a 56-yard touchdown strike. It was the first of four touchdown passes for the Tilghman sophomore.
On Trigg’s next drive, Wease suffered a leg injury and did not return. He was 4-of-8 passing for 37 yards before the injury.
Jerimyah Shearer entered at quarterback and led the Wildcats down the field. He threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to Jhaden Vaughn to knot the game at 14-14 with 9:27 left in the half.
Junior Lebran McMullen sparked Tilghman’s run that put them ahead for good. He returned a Trigg punt 55 yards to put the Blue Tornado up 21-14 with 2:41 showing on the clock.
A short punt put Tilghman in a position to add to its lead. They did just that when McMullen caught a 31-yard scoring strike from James with 1:37 left.
A Trigg fumble set up Tilghman to go ahead 35-14 when Cam Marshall caught a 5-yard pass from James with 58 seconds left in the half.
Tilghman scored the next three touchdowns to put the game out of reach. Marshall took a short pass from James and raced 85 yards for a score just a minute into the second half.
Kharentez Moore and Ragsdale ran for touchdowns to extend the Tilghman lead to 55-14.
Trigg County closed out the scoring when Shearer scored from a yard out, and Parham added the conversion run with 30 seconds left. Shearer was 8-of-13 passing for 118 yards.
Receiver Dakota Lockard also completed a pair of passes for 79 yards as Trigg totaled 234 yards through the air. Dillon Skinner caught six passes for 113 yards, and Vaughn had four catches for 81 yards.
Trigg’s defense limited Tilghman to 77 rushing yards on 24 attempts, but James was 13-of-27 passing for 348 yards. The Blue Tornado racked up 470 yards on 52 plays compared to Trigg’s 294 yards on 51 plays.
Marshall led the Tilghman receivers with four catches for 140 yards.
Tilghman evens its record at 5-5 and will travel to Union County next week in the second round of the playoffs.
Trigg County fell to 0-14 all-time against Paducah Tilghman and sees its season end with a record of 4-7.
