In a battle between a pair of playoff-bound teams, a trio of big plays in the opening quarter proved to be the difference. Host Hartselle raced out to a 21-0, then held off a Bob Jones comeback attempt, earning a 38-31 victory, to cap a 10-0 regular season for the Tigers.

“It’s hard to do, first off,” Hartselle head coach Bryan Moore said of the perfect regular season. “I’m just proud of the kids and just proud of everyone involved in our program to get that done for the second year in a row.”

Hartselle quarterback Jack Smith passed for two scores and ran for another, while Azariah Fletcher ran for a 136 yards and pair of touchdowns after halftime in the win.

Smith got Hartselle on the board, bursting through a hole on a fourth-and-1 at the Bob Jones 37 for the TD.

On the second play of the Class 6A fifth-ranked Tigers’ next drive, Smith connected with Izayah Fletcher for a 56-yard scoring strike, then on the third play of their following drive, the pair hooked up again for a 21-0 lead.

While the Tigers opened on fire, the Patriots saw two punts and a turnover on downs in Hartselle territory before finding their groove in the second quarter. Quarterback Rayshawn Hardy broke a big play of his own, scoring from 49 yards out, followed by a field goal to close out the half, trimming the lead to 21-10.

Hardy had a huge game for the Patriots, running for 212 yards on 26 carries and the TD. He also passed for 165 yards and a touchdown.

Bob Jones had 359 yards on the ground and had 66 offensive snaps to Hartselle’s 42 plays for 335 total yards.

Hartselle continued to hit big plays after halftime, with Azariah Fletcher going around the left side on an option play for a 67-yard touchdown on the first play of the second half to make it 28-10.

Bob Jones answered with Hardy’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Quenton Hubbard. Hartselle added a field goal on its next chance with the ball, followed by Tyren Washington scoring the first of his two fourth-quarter scores for the Patriots to pull within 31-24.

Hartselle again had an answer, with Azariah Fletcher scoring from 25 yards for what proved to be the game-winning score after Hubbard followed with a 7-yard run for the final.

Hartselle ran out the final 5:31 of the game to prevent the Patriots from completing the comeback effort.

Star of the game: Azariah Fletcher finished with 177 yards, including 136 after halftime, as well as a pair of second-half touchdowns.

Play of the game: After jumping out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, Bob Jones grabbed momentum in the second, outscoring the Tiger 10-0. Azariah Fletcher then gave the Tigers the momentum back, taking an option pitch from Smith and going around the left side and weaving through the Bob Jones defense for a 67-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second half.

Stat Sheet: Hartselle – Scored five touchdowns that accounted for 235 of the Tigers 335 yards of offense. Smith finished the night 6-of-10 for 149 yards and two scores, plus another 63 on the ground. Bob Jones – Rushed for 359 yards as a team. Had two 100-yard rushers in Hardy (212 yards) and Hubbard (131).

By the numbers: 66-42 – Bob Jones’ total snaps advantage. 524-335 – Bob Jones’ total yardage advantage. 21-0 – Hartselle’s lead after the first quarter despite running fewer than 10 plays in the period.

Coachspeak: “If we could throw it over their head early then we would, but the game kind of dictated that later, we still had some of those opportunities, but later we needed to squeeze the air out of the ball and slow it down and protect our defense. But I was glad to shoot at them early like that and hit Izayah a couple times for some big plays. Jack was really good, and our offensive line held up and did a good job.” – Hartselle’s Bryan Moore on 21-0 start.

“I’m proud of our guys for the way they fought back and gave us a chance to win. Hats off to Hartselle, they have a really good football team. Our offensive line did a great job controlling the line of scrimmage after we settled down a little bit. Offensively, I thought it was overall a great effort, and I would have loved our guys to have one more chance to try to tie, but Hartselle did a good job of running out the clock.” – Bob Jones head coach Kelvis White.

What’s next: Region champion Hartselle will play host to Buckhorn next Friday in the opening round of the 6A playoffs. Bob Jones will travel to face top-ranked Hoover in the opening game of the 7A playoffs on Friday night.