Football Thursday night: Handley gets preseason win against RCHS as 2025 football season gets underway
Handley fullback Ladarious Tucker had a 34-yard touchdown run and finished with 44 yards on three carries in Handley’s 21-12 preseason win over RCHS Thursday.
There will be no mistaking Thursday’s football scrimmage between Handley and RCHS for anything more than what it was – a preseason game where a whole bunch of players mostly learned what not to do.
Handley won 21-12 in a game that RCHS led 6-0 at halftime. The teams played their first strings almost exclusively through those first two quarters, and Handley scored two of its touchdowns with its first teamers after RCHS head coach Pat Prestridge had sat most of his first-team defense.
But both coaches will be able to see it as progress, and they’ll both be able to pull some highlights from the night’s proceedings.
RCHS will surely walk proudly considering its performance through the first two quarters. The RCHS defense forced a pair of Handley turnovers, while the offense broke the longest play of the half to set up the only first-half points.
Quarterback Rhett Huddleston connected with receiver Seth Massey for a 58-yard catch and run that got RCHS a first down at the Handley 11-yard line. Handley’s defense rose to the occasion and forced RCHS into a fourth-and-long. But Huddleston found fullback Brayden Terrell on a screen pass and Terrell rumbled 14 yards for the touchdown to give the visiting Tigers a 6-0 lead.
Handley struggled to move the ball consistently against a stout defensive front, but the home Tigers used some big plays at the start of the third quarter to claim the lead for good.
The first play of the second half was a beautifully executed deep ball from Cordan Patterson to Elijah Stegall for a 70-yard score. After Handley forced a three-and-out, DJ Gray took the first handoff on the ensuing possession and broke free for a 76-yard touchdown to put Handley up 14-6.
Handley padded the lead with a 34-yard touchdown run by fullback Ladarious Tucker late in the third quarter. And RCHS closed the gap with an 11-play, 70-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard scoring run by Lavonta Dye.
Those were the meaningful plays in an otherwise halting, herky-jerky game that saw the two teams combine for 22 penalties. Of those, the vast majority were procedural, with 18 of the 22 being 5-yard infractions. That’s to be expected at this stage of the season, and both teams will likely clean things up significantly by next week’s season openers.
RCHS running back Mo Winston, who did not play in last year’s preseason game against Handley, finished with a team-high 12 carries for 41 yards – all in the first half.
A couple of sophomores carried the load for the Tigers from Wedowee in the second half, with Dye running 10 times for 59 yards and a score, and Elijah Thrift adding 59 yards on seven carries.
For Handley, Makavian Allen, who switched this season from receiver to running back, carried the biggest load with 65 yards on eight carries. Gray finished with 76 yards and a touchdown on two runs, and Tucker added three carries for 44 yards and a score.
Handley will open its regular season next week in Lineville against Central of Clay County. RCHS will make the trip up Highway 48 to Woodland for this year’s edition of the Grocery Bowl.
