Ardmore couldn’t have scripted a better start to the 2024 season.
The Tigers scored early and often Friday night en route to a 55-7 home victory versus Tanner, matching already their win total from last year’s campaign following 48 dominant minutes against their county competition.
“It was a pretty long nine months since we last played and we sort of adopted the idea of having something to prove,” Ardmore coach Jonathan Snider said. “Our guys want to be better than what they were. They stuck with it and didn’t bat an eye. They did everything we asked them to do in the offseason and cashed that check tonight. Hats off to the kids and the coaching staff for doing everything we needed to do. It was nice to not have to bite our nails. I’m ecstatic for the kids.”
Zavion Hawthorne (three) and Javean Riddle (two) registered multiple touchdowns for the Tigers.
Alex King also threw a touchdown pass to Skyler Jean, Noah Stafford returned a kickoff for another score and Jailyn Smith added a scoring run of his own.
“Offensively, we told them we needed to run the football,” Snider said. “Our guys took ownership of that. We wanted to establish the line of scrimmage and we did that offensively. We were able to get tough yards, run it when we needed to and have some explosive plays as well. Defensively, I asked them to get a bunch of hats to the ball — play with effort and with an edge. They got after it.”
Ardmore travels to Clements next week. Tanner, meanwhile, will host Colbert County.