Paducah Tilghman scored 29 unanswered second half points to beat Trigg County 43-10 Friday and hand the Wildcats their first loss of the football season in the district opener for both teams.
Olivia Noffsinger knocked home a 27-yard field goal — her second of the season — to give Trigg County a 10-7 lead with 6:56 left in the first half.
Tilghman quickly answered with a 38-yard scoring strike from Jack James to JoeAvian Starks that put Tilghman ahead 14-10 — a score that would remain at halftime.
Despite trailing by four points at the break, the Wildcats outgained Tilghman 183-170 in the first half and limited the Blue Tornado to 31 rushing yards in the first 24 minutes.
Tilghman found its running game in the second half, and that proved to be the difference. Playing without its leading rusher Malachi Rider, who suffered an arm injury in the previous week’s loss to Henderson County, Tilghman turned to senior Jordauyn White who came into the game averaging 29 yards a game.
White ran for four touchdowns — three in the second half — and finished with 154 yards on 12 carries to help Tilghman run for 168 yards after halftime.
White scored on a 21-yard run to open the second half and extend Tilghman’s lead to 22-10 following a successful two-point conversion.
A key play in the game that set up a detrimental domino effect for the Wildcats happened on Trigg’s opening drive of the second half. Back to punt, Jacob Wease hit Dillon Skinner on a pass for an apparent first down to extend the drive. But the Wildcats were whistled for an illegal shift turning 4th-and-4 to 4th-and-9. Trigg opted to punt on the next play, and Tilghman returned the 34-yard punt 47 yards to the Wildcat 14-yard line.
White scored from 11 yards out just two plays later for a 29-10 Tilghman lead.
Trigg drove to the Tilghman 13-yard line before the drive stalled. Tilghman essentially put the game away two plays later when White took the handoff and scampered 78 yards to the end zone.
Trigg’s final three drives ended with two punts and an interception.
Tilghman’s offensive coordinator is Corey Robinson, who set a national high school record at Lone Oak High School with 91 touchdown passes in the 2008 season. Running Tilghman’s offense Friday, James resembled the former Troy University quarterback with short pass after short pass, connecting with eight different receivers to the tune of 20-of-34 passing for 261 yards.
Tilghman finished with 290 second half yards and 460 yards for the game.
Trigg County had 331 yards with 103 coming on the ground. Kelsey Parham had 92 yards on 25 carries, including a 2-yard run with 10:45 left in the second quarter for Trigg’s lone touchdown.
Jacob Wease was 21-of-40 passing for 228 yards but Tilghman’s tight coverage limited Trigg to 12 catches of nine or fewer yards. Jhaden Vaughn had seven catches for 90 yards with Jerimyah Shearer adding six catches for 42 yards and Ivey Redd bringing in five catches for 54 yards.
Tilghman snapped a three-game losing streak to move to 3-3 this season and 13-0 all-time against Trigg County. They stand at 1-0 in the district.
Trigg County, who was seeking its first 7-0 start since 1989, suffered its first loss in seven games to begin the 2022 season.
The Wildcats enter a bye week and will return home to Perdue Field on Oct. 14 for its final home game of the regular season against Webster County, who dropped a 48-18 decision to unbeaten Union County Friday.
