One thing was for sure in Tunstall’s 36-13 victory over Patrick County, is that the Trojans running game was put on a magnificent display in front of hundreds of fans in Dry Fork. Tunstall’s Trevor Lovelace recorded a season-high of 257 rushing yards on 27 carries. Lovelace, who has rushed for more than 600 yards in just four games this season, scored two key touchdowns in the effort. His second touchdown of the night helped the Trojans pull away from the Cougars; Lovelace scored on a 55 yard run that started on their own 45-yard line in the closing minutes of the third quarter.

“Once we got the car cranked up, it ran pretty well. It just took us awhile to get rolling,” said Tunstall head coach David Potts “Patrick County came out, they had us schemed up pretty well. They kept the ball on offense and kept it away from us. We missed a field goal and they capitalized, but as the game went on we wore them down and Trevor found his spots and we blocked well for him.”

Penalties became an issue for Trojans as the night went on. Tunstall racked up 10 penalties for a total of 100 penalty yards. It is the first time this season that the Trojans penalty yards went into the triple digits, but it is the second time this season that they had 10 or more penalties.

With the Trojans running the ball throughout the majority of the game, it could answer to why they were not throwing the ball as much. Buckner completed half of his attempts, going 4-8 with 68 passing yards.

“The throws were there,” said Potts “We dropped one and then we hit one and then we would fumble it. So later on we had a couple of passes to keep drives alive to eat the clock up and to finish them off.”

After they allowed the Cougars to score in the first, Tunstall would make a comeback in later stages of the first half. The Trojans burnt off six minutes off the clock and a couple of key runs from Lovelace and Clay Hardy, they found themselves on the Patrick County 3-yard line; Hardy scored the three-yard touchdown. Kicker Reagan Dillion would get the PAT to up them up by one. With almost three minutes’ left, the Trojans would have another strong drive; thanks to 30 yard run from Lovelace that landed them on the Patrick County five. Lovelace would score on the five-yard touchdown. With the PAT from Dillon, Tunstall was up 14-6 at the half.

The Trojans defense was another factor to stopping the Cougars offense. Tony Johnson lead the team with eight solo tackles. Tony Totton had six tackles while Nick Vest and Jalen Moore both had four. Totton also had two sacks and Moore had one.

In the fourth, Tunstall would eat up over seven minutes of the clock, doing so with a 92-yard, 17 play drive. They would also convert on a couple of third and fourth down conversions, keeping their drive alive. With less than five minutes to go, Hardy would barrel through the Cougars defense on third and goal for the one-yard touchdown. On the point after, the Trojans attempted the fake field goal; Dillon would scramble into the end-zone for the two-point conversion, giving the Trojans the 29-6 lead.

On the kickoff return, they were able to successfully recover the onside kick that landed on the Patrick County 35-yard line. Three plays later, Eddie Booth would explode through and ran down the sidelines on a 37-yard touchdown; his first of the season.

There were some notable things that happened. For Hardy, he ended his streak of three consecutive games in where he would rush for more than 100 yards and it is the first game this season for Tunstall in that they did not have a fumble recovery.

Tunstall won’t have to travel far out this week as they travel to the inner city of Danville to face the George Washington Eagles. Game-time is at 7pm