McCracken County scored on their opening drive in front of a packed house at Marquette Stadium. Zyaire Hughes scored on a 3-yard touchdown run to cap off an 80-yard drive. The extra point was no good, but McCracken County led 6-0.
Miles Butler put Paducah Tilghman on the board with a 32-yard field goal, cutting the Mustangs’ lead to 6-3 midway through the second half. Right before halftime, McCracken’s RaSheed Jones returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown and, after a two-point conversion, the Mustangs went into the locker room with a 14-3 lead.
It took Tilghman only 53 seconds to score in the third quarter. Quarterback Jesse Dunigan connected with Mikey Davis on a 61-yard TD pass and Tilghman cut the lead to 14-10.
McCracken answered with a 28-yard field goal from Reed Snow, pushing the lead back to seven at 17-10 with 8:40 left in the third quarter. Tilghman tied the game on a DJ Sherrill 9 yard touchdown run.
The Blue Tornado took their first lead of the game on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Dunigan to Davis. With 11:54 left to play, Tilghman led McCracken 24-17. McCracken scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter when Jones scampered into the end zone from nine yards out. The extra point by Snow however was no good and Tilghman led 24-23 with just over four minutes left in the game.
The Mustangs got the ball back with three minutes left but couldn’t convert on fourth down and Tilghman was able to run out the clock.
The win puts Tilghman at 1-0 on the season. The Blue Tornado will play at Evansville Reitz Friday night. The Mustangs will be looking for their first win of the season when they travel to Mayfield Friday night.
