Red Bank football coach Ted Gatewood preached physicality to his players prior to the Lions hosting Tyner in the season opener for both teams.
It appears Gatewood’s team got that message.
Led by a four-pronged rushing attack that combined for 251 yards, the Lions built a two-touchdown halftime lead and cruised to a 24-8 win over the Rams on Friday night in a TSSAA nonregion matchup. Josiah Featherstone finished with 108 yards and a score — a number that was affected by him jumping on a loose ball, resulting in a 14-yard loss — and Olivir Merritt chipped in 94 yards and another score.
Defensively, Class 4A’s Lions forced a pair of turnovers and held 3A’s Rams to 102 rushing yards, with most coming after Red Bank had built a 24-point fourth-quarter lead.
“We knew that tonight was going to be a tough task,” Gatewood said of facing the Rams. “They are big, they’re physical, and we had to match the physicality that they were going to bring. We felt good with our defensive line, and our offensive line played well.
“It’s a tribute to our coaches and our kids taking the coaching and doing what we have to do to adjust, so all the way around, it was a great team effort.”
It didn’t necessarily start that way. As is the case with most first games in any season, there were nerves on each side.
Tyner had an open receiver on the first drive of the game who dropped what could have been a touchdown pass down the left sideline. On the very next drive, a fumbled snap by Red Bank led to a recovery by Tyner’s Josia Sutton, and it appeared the first team to settle in would control the game.
That team was Red Bank, which leaned on Featherstone and Merritt to drive downfield and score, with Featherstone cruising in from 11 yards out.
Tyner did walk back downfield, buoyed by a 35-yard completion on fourth down from Quiante Price to Avery Ford, but the Red Bank defense ended the Rams’ drive in the red zone. The Lions then used a 57-yard completion from Logan McGinnis to Cayden Loveless — plus a horse-collar penalty on the play — to get out of their own end zone, and Merritt rumbled 24 yards on the next play to put the hosts in control.
McGinnis, who passed for 101 yards, and Drayden Collier hooked up for a 25-yard touchdown, and Joe Thompson knocked in a 28-yard field goal to complete the Lions’ scoring in the second half,.
Meanwhile, Tyner got a boost late in the game from backup quarterback Tyler Anderson, who in his only real series ran for 55 yards and completed a 32-yard pass to Nashawn Keel, scoring from 19 yards out for the Rams’ only touchdown. Anderson led the visitors with 72 rushing yards, all in the fourth quarter.
Austin Barnwell and Markee Crutcher had interceptions for Red Bank.
“We came out a little nervous today with that fumble on the first drive, but we came back to the sideline, talked about it and got right back to it,” Featherstone said. “This is a big win for us; all they did was talk, and all we did was come out and play our game to be able to kind of get the last laugh.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.