Just when you thought the Caldwell County-Trigg County rivalry had already seen a little bit of everything, came an hour-and-18-minute lightning delay and a light outage — all before the Tigers and Wildcats could kick off their 73rd meeting on the gridiron.
When the game finally started, Kam Wilson had three touchdowns, 179 total yards and 13 tackles as Caldwell turned away Trigg 47-22 Friday night at Tiger Stadium in the annual 139 Bowl.
It was the Tigers’ 13th straight win against its border rival — going back to the creation of the 139 Bowl trophy in 2013.
Caldwell is now 4-1 overall and 1-0 in district play. Trigg is 1-4 and 0-1.
Davaree Gude ran for 180 yards and three touchdowns for the Wildcats, who got off to a good start in the contest.
Gude’s 9-yard touchdown run gave the Wildcats are early 7-0 lead.
A 45-yard scoring jaunt had Trigg within 17-14 early in the second quarter.
However, Caldwell finished the first half strong, scoring twice in the final 2:36 to get to halftime with a 27-14 advantage.
Sutton Ritchey kicked a 26-yard field goal to give the Tigers a 20-14 advantage. It was his second field goal of the period after nailing a 47-yarder earlier.
Caldwell got the ball back with 40 seconds left in the half — and quickly found the end zone again.
A pass from Daelyn Lander to Wilson was turned into a 41-yard touchdown play, with Wilson staying inbounds on the sideline when Trigg tried to push him out, then carrying defenders the final 10 yards to the end zone.
It was all Caldwell in the third period as the Tigers pulled away.
Jack Roach scored on a 12-yard run. Lander hit Zy Rollins for a deep 57-yard touchdown connection. And Lander later went 44 yards on a quarterback keeper to extend the margin to 47-14.
Gude added a 21-yard touchdown run for Trigg in the fourth quarter, but by then the Tigers had the game in hand.
Lander completed 10 of 16 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for a team-high 62 yards on only four carries.
Wilson caught six passes for 122 yards and two scores. He ran for 57 and another TD.
For Trigg, Peyton Williams caught seven passes for 78 yards.
But the Wildcats lost starting quarterback Caden Scott to an injury in third quarter. He was 5 of 8 for 69 yards.
Caldwell finished with 348 total yards — 142 on the ground,
Trigg had 296 yards, with 218 of that from the running game.
The Tigers now lead the all-time series 50-22-1.
Jack Roach had 13 tackles for Caldwell and became the 11th Tiger to pass 300 career stops, now with 307.
Lander became the ninth Caldwell quarterback to top 3,000 career passing yards. He now has 3,166 yards.
The game was scheduled for a 7:00 kickoff but did not get underway until 8:18 p.m. because of lightning in the area.
Caldwell’s homecoming ceremony began around 8:00, but was delayed itself when the lights at Tiger Stadium went out just seconds before the homecoming queen was to be announced. When the lights came back up, JaDaya Woolfork was crowned queen.
Both teams will host district games next week — Caldwell against Fort Campbell and Trigg against Crittenden County.
