Looking to bounce back from a season-opening loss to Graves County, the Mayfield Cardinals rushed for almost 350 yards on Friday to down hosts Hopkinsville 51-28 in the Tigers’ home opener.
The Cardinals found the end zone on their opening drive when Mak Hoover scored from 13 yards out, but the Tigers answered on Treston Kay’s scoop and score after a Mayfield fumble deep in Hoptown territory.
However, it was all Cardinals for the rest of the half, starting with Josiah England’s 42-yard touchdown to give Mayfield a 14-7 advantage after the first quarter.
Leading 16-7 after a safety on a bad snap on a Hopkinsville punt, Mayfield took advantage of a short kickoff to get back in the end zone less than two minutes into the second quarter on England’s 1-yard TD dive.
With 8:22 left in the half, Mayfield fumbled a punt, and Foster Jackson recovered to give the Tigers the ball on the Cardinal 27-yard line. Quarterback Aiden King ran around the left side down to the 10, but Hoptown went backward and was forced to punt.
Mayfield closed the half with an 8-yard TD on a screen pass to Malik Kirby for a 30-7 lead at the break.
England was back in the end zone with a short scoring run on the Cardinals’ first possession of the second half, and they triggered a running clock when Kirby took a screen 24 yards to make it 44-7 with 4:20 left in the third quarter.
But things got interesting from there, starting with a nine-yard TD pass over the middle from King to Kay as the third quarter expired. On the ensuing kickoff, John Morton recovered after Mayfield mishandled it to set the Tigers up on the Cardinal 18-yard line. King hit Tremayne Clay for a 22-yard touchdown to cut the margin to three scores with 9:38 remaining.
Once again, Mayfield couldn’t come up with the kickoff, and Jayon Bass picked it up for the Tigers. However, the drive stalled, and they turned it over on downs. The Cardinals answered with England’s fourth TD of the night on a 64-yard run to cap a 17-carry, 285-yard performance.
Hopkinsville had one more trick up its sleeve with a 57-yard scoring connection from King to Kay with just under four minutes left, and the Tigers once again recovered the kickoff. But on 1st and ten from the Mayfield 23, Hoover picked off King’s pass and returned it to the Hoptown 33 to end the game.
Mayfield ran 46 plays for 445 total yards, including 348 on the ground. Jace Houston and Gray Robbins combined for 97 yards through the air on ten completions.
King threw for 219 yards and three scores, but the Tigers were held to negative yards on the ground to finish with 187 total yards on 46 plays.
Hopkinsville slipped to 0-2 ahead of a matchup with Christian County next week. The Tigers had won the last four in the series before a 22-20 loss to the Colonels last season.
