GRAY DEYO Sports Writer

The Tullahoma High School football team fell to 1-5 after losing to Lawrence County High School on Homecoming, 31-23.

In the first half, the Wildcats were struggling on both sides of the ball, resulting in them facing a big deficit at halftime. Lawrence County put together three good scoring drives to get a 21-3 lead. Senior Zakyus Everly accounted for two of them, one rushing and one receiving, while junior Kavindre Young scored the other. Young was a constant thorn in Tullahoma’s side. He led the game in rushing yards with 156 on 25 carries.

Facing a large deficit, the Wildcats needed to rally, and they did. By the time the first whistle was blown for the second half, they looked like a new team. They were able to get Lawrence County to punt on their first possession of the second half and put forth an extremely efficient drive.

A bad snap sent the Wildcats back to their own 44-yard line for a second down and 30 after a 23-yard run by Harris, and a 14-yard catch by sophomore Luke Hyden got the Wildcats well into Lawrence County’s side of the field. What seemed like a huge blow to a building drive was snapped back on track with a 33-yard pass completion thrown by senior QB Patrick Riddle to junior WR Landin Johnson. The drive was capped off by Riddle delivering a nine-yard TD strike to sophomore WR Colby Shepherd to cut the lead to 21-10 with 5:39 left in the third quarter.

With the struggles Tullahoma’s offense has had so far this season, they have been proactive in trying to fix it. They introduced three notable new players on the offensive side of the ball in this game who all played skill positions in the contest: sophomore Grayson Harden, junior Michael Palmer, and Hyden. All three players have solely played on defense for Tullahoma up until their outing against Lawrence.

The Wildcats were able to keep the game within two scores following Shepherd’s TD after a time-killing drive by Lawrence ended in a short field goal to make it a 24-10 game with 11:08 in the fourth quarter. Shepherd continued his big night, setting up Tullahoma on Lawrence’s 35-yard line after a massive kick return. The Wildcats went on to score in four plays, with the drive ending in a two-yard QB run by Riddle, bringing the score to 24-17 with 9:24 still left to play.

The Wildcats were in a similar zone to the one they were in in their lone win of 2026 against Coffee County Central. In that matchup, Tullahoma was able to overcome a 21-point deficit against the Red Raiders, and that same fate they delivered to their rival was seemingly happening before the eyes of a home crowd at Wilkins Stadium.

Tullahoma was able to force another punt from Lawrence with 7:53 left in the game after Riddle’s rushing TD. At least that is what was supposed to happen.

The Wildcats, on fourth and seven awaiting a punt, logged two consecutive offside penalties that put Lawrence’s punter back on the sideline and brought their offense back on the field with a fresh set of downs. Those two mistakes by Tullahoma ultimately cost them the game.

Lawrence went on to have another time-consuming drive that ended in a TD catch by Everly, making the score 31-17 with 3:25 left.

Tullahoma did get another TD, but it was too little, too late as they eventually logged their fifth loss of the season.

The Wildcats will have one more game before they have a bye week. They will take on Lincoln County High School on Oct. 2. They have an overall record of 5-0 this season and have scored over 30 points in four out of five of their games.

 2026 THS Homecoming Court

Before kickoff between Tullahoma and Lawrence County, THS recognized its 2026 Homecoming Court: Kylie George, Nylah Harrel (Homecoming Princess), Madalin Lidstrom, Bella Williams (Homecoming Queen), Jenna Gill, Emily Bell, Haley Brown, Boaz Lee (Homecoming Prince), Nathan Miller, Parke Fulks, Elijah Alexander, Alex Cook, Alex Stroop, and Jackson Hunt. The 2026 Little Couple was Kingstyn McCullough and Steele Olive.