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Thompson's Taulia Tagovailoa had 373 yards and four touchdowns for Thompson in basically two quarters of work against James Clemens to lead the Warriors to an opening-night win. (For the Reporter/Eric Starling)

By ERIC STARLING | For the Reporter

MONTGOMERY – The 2018 Thompson Warrior football season kicked off at the Champions Challenge in Montgomery on Friday, Aug. 24, and it appears the Thompson gang hasn’t missed a beat even with the loss of the many seniors from last season’s 12-1 team. The Warriors made quick work of James Clemens taking the game by a lopsided final score of 38-7.

First, to prove they aren’t happy with last season, was the defense’s dominance to start the game. The Jets took the field and quickly found themselves punting because of Thompson’s stout defense early in the game, a defense that held the Jets scoreless until the final play of the first half.

Thompson started its first drive at its own 41-yard line and immediately went to work on the ground. Two running plays from Shadrick Byrd and the Warriors had moved the ball 28 yards and well into Jets territory.

Senior quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa connected with Michael Pettway for a 10-yard score that was called back because of holding on the Warriors. That didn’t deter the combo as they connected on the very next play for a 27-yard score. An Evan McGuire extra point gave the Warriors a 7-0 lead.

The Warriors next drive went 70 yards and was capped off with a 5-yard touchdown strike from Tagovailoa to Kyle Smoak. Smoak finished the night with five receptions for 46 yards.

A defensive stand by the Warriors in the red zone gave the offense the ball at their own 9-yard line. With all of that green in front of them, the Warriors made short work of it and put another seven points on the board before the first quarter ended.

Tagovailoa hit a streaking Pettway down the middle of the field for a 53-yard touchdown. Pettway went on to lead all receivers with 6 receptions, 110 yards and two touchdowns.

The Jets drove the length of the field, before Thompson’s defense forced a fumble at the 2-yard line.

The first half scoring for the Warriors was capped off with Byrd punching it in from 4 yards out with 2:01 remaining in the half. Byrd finished the night with 65 rushing yards and that lone score.

As the horn sounded to end the first half, the Jets scored their lone points of the evening leaving the score at 28-7 going into the half.

“We will work this week to shore up our defense,” stated head coach Mark Freeman. “This is a team with 13 new starters, and overall we played well but we were a little lazy at the end of the first half.  After losing our receivers from last season, it was nice to see how our new starters responded tonight.”

Taking the first possession in the second half, the Warriors seemed to be in a two-minute drill mode, as they marched down the field in less than two minutes to push the score to 35-7.

Tagovailoa hit J.B. Mitchell from 25 yards out for the touchdown.  Mitchell finished with 73 yards on four targets.

Tagovailoa had yet another 300-plus yard passing performance to add to his resume after completing 26-of-39 passes for 373 yards and 4 scores.

McGuire added a 44-yard field goal in the final quarter to finish the night for the Warriors.

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