The Marshall County-Maplewood rivalry has so far been a short but extremely competitive series, beginning with a 34-33 triple overtime thriller win by the Tigers in Week 9 of the magical 2015 season.

Coming into Friday's matchup in Nashville, the Tigers (4-1, 2-0) held a 4-1 series advantage over the Panthers (1-4, 1-1) since 2015 and the 2019 game would prove no different as Maplewood held a 14-10 lead at halftime before Marshall County came out of the break on fire with a 19-0 third quarter en-route to a 35-20 win.

"Our game plan coming into Maplewood was to get a region win and have a good plan coming into Nashville because we knew they would have a lot of athletes," junior wide receiver A'Ky Howard said. "I think we executed well as a team in the game plan that our coaches put up (for us) to succeed."

With Bryson Hammons under center in 2019, the Tigers have a rapidly improving passing game and the Maplewood contest was no exception as the sophomore signal caller continued his impressive campaign with 183 yards in the air on 12-of-19 passing with one touchdown and most importantly, no interceptions.

"Each game I feel like I get a better understanding and feel for the game," Hammons stated. "Winning is definitely a big confidence booster also."

"After the Lincoln County game I felt the season was starting to go in my favor," Hammons, who has just one interception versus seven touchdowns on the year, said.

Senior receiver Devon Wilson continues to emerge as the Tigers best possession receiver, adding four catches for 40 yards to go along with deep threat Howard, who finished with two catches for 28 yards.

Andrew Gold had his best offensive game as a Tiger with three catches for 65 yards and his first score of the season on Marshall County's second offensive possession.

The recent emergence of a high-powered passing game has also opened up the running lanes with Kel Greer adding his first 100-yard rushing game of the season, finishing with 134 yards on 24 carries and a season best three touchdowns.

The senior running back also added two catches for 35 yards.

"All of our receivers have put a really great influence on Bryson," Howard offered. "All of our receivers are dangerous and can score in seconds."

"We feed off of our quarterback and our quarterback feeds off of us, so we really have great team chemistry with our quarterback," Howard added. "We look up to him as a leader."

The Tiger defense remains a force to be reckoned with, allowed just six second half points after the Panthers scored twice in the first half for a 14-10 advantage.

Tez Allen added another masterpiece on defense with seven tackles and three tackles for a loss with defensive line mate Kaylin Talley chipping in five tackles with three tackles for a loss.

Chandler Davis and Hayden Sheppard finished with six tackles apiece and Connor Hilton added five.

And although the Tigers are vastly improving in every area in every game, turnovers continue to be a thorn in the side.

On the first series of the contest, the Tigers fumbled the ball which was returned 43 yards for a touchdown by the Panthers for the 8-0 lead after the two-point conversion.

The Tigers wasted little time coming back as Hammons threw his first and only score of the contest on a seven-yard strike to Gold.

Marshall County stopped the Panthers on the next possession, but for the first time in 2019 Tiger kicker Jon Estes missed a field goal and the Panthers held onto the 8-7 lead.

Following the Tigers defense stopping the Panthers drive at midfield, Estes got the chance to redeem himself and capitalized on the opportunity with a 29-yard field goal for a 10-8 Tiger lead with just over four minutes remaining in the first half.

Marshall County held tight against the Maplewood offense once more before the half was over with the chance to add on to its two-point lead after a Panther punt, but on the ensuing possession, another ill-timed Tiger fumble was recovered and returned 47-yards for another Maplewood TD with just a minute left in the first half, handing the lead back to the home team at 14-10.

The third quarter and essentially the entire second half belonged to Greer and the Tigers’ defense.

Greer scored on two runs of one yard each with a five-yard touchdown in between to put the game out of reach behind a 19-0 third quarter by the Tigers.

Talley eased the pain of the Tigers’ two lost fumbles for Maplewood scores as the lineman recovered a Panther fumble to set up Estes for his second field goal of the night.

With the Tiger defense not rescinding an inch and Greer running wild all over Maplewood a once close region tilt turned into an anti-climactic Marshall County win.

"The defense and special teams really gave us momentum and put us in great field position to win the game," Howard observed. "The defense was shutout the whole game and the offense, we did really good as the game went on but we will grow as a team as the season goes on."

The contest versus Maplewood was extremely important as a region win kept the Tigers tied for first place in 4-4A, but also was a nice gauge before another trip north to recently powerful Springfield (4-1).

After two straight 4A quarterfinal appearances in 2015 and 2016, the Yellow Jackets finally broke through with a championship game appearance in 2017 which resulted in a 45-13 loss against Greeneville in the finale.

Last season Springfield finished 11-3 and bowed out one game short of the championship after a 49-14 loss against eventual runner-up Haywood County.

"Springfield has been a Top 5 4A team in Tennessee in the last five years," Howard stated. "They have been to the state championship before last season, they are an image of us. We both have athletes on both sides of the ball, we know their linebackers are the strongest unit of their team and also their O-Line and D-Line,"

"We need to keep focusing every game, watch film and keep executing our game plans that our coaches work hard on and staying at the school at 4 a.m. to get us better," Howard added. "Our chemistry as a team has to stay tight because we're two wins away from having a spot in the playoffs. We have to secure a spot but we have to focus one game at a time to win."

Springfield comes into the contest with a 4-1 record, losing to 6A Wilson Central (4-1) in the season opener before knocking off Clarksville, White House Heritage, Station Camp, and White House entering the game against Marshall County.

Marshall County 7 3 19 6-35

Maplewood 8 6 0 6-20

Marshall County

Total Yards: Rushing 145, Passing 183.

Rushing: Kel Greer 24-134-3TD, Bryson Hammons 8-12, Conner Hilton 2-(-1).

Passing: Bryson Hammons 12-19-183-TD.

Receiving: Andrew Gold 3-65-TD, Devon Wilson 4-40, Kel Greer 2-35, A’Ky Howard 2-28, Lamarion Pierce 1-15.

Kicking

PAT: Jon Estes 3-3.

FG: Jon Estes 2-3-31 long.

Kickoffs: Jon Estes 7-372-3TB.

Punting: Joseph Gold 1-43.

Returns

Kickoffs: Kaden Whitson 2-42, Devon Wilson 1-17, Hunter Rolof 1-10, Riqkyous Summers 1-7.

Punts: Devon Wilson 2-49.

Defense

Tackles: Tez Allen 7 (3TFL, FUM REC), Hayden Sheppard 6, Chandler Davis 6, Connor Hilton 5, Keylin Talley 5 (3TFL), Riqkyous Summers 4 (TFL, FUM REC), Andrew Gold 4, Devonte Davis 3, Lamarion Pierce 2, Hunter Rolof 2 (TFL), Christian Stacey 2 (TFL), Logan McKnight 2 (TFL), Kaden Whitson 1 (FUM REC), Cortez Ingram 1, Joseph Gold 1.

Region 4-4A Standings

Nolensville 4-0, 2-0

Marshall County 4-1, 2-0

Tullahoma 3-2, 1-1

Maplewood 1-4, 1-1

Lawrence County 3-2, 0-2

Spring Hill 0-5, 0-2