By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

VINCENT – Sitting inside the top six of the Class 2A football rankings the entire season, and entering Friday, Oct. 19, with a ranking of No. 3, Reeltown was always going to be a tough matchup for the Vincent Yellow Jackets.

When the Rebels traveled to Vincent to take on the Yellow Jackets in a region contest, both teams were coming in with winning streaks, but Reeltown sat at 7-1 overall this season, while Vincent was 3-4 overall.

Winners of three in a row, Vincent was showing positive signs and had gained momentum since its 0-4 start, but Reeltown’s defense was giving up just 13.3 points per game coming into the matchup, while Vincent’s offense has struggled for much of the year.

Still though, the Yellow Jackets came out ready to play early in the game.

For much of the first quarter, neither team really seemed to sustain any sort of success offensively, thanks to both defenses being fresh early in the contest, but Reeltown struck first with 2:40 left in the opening quarter to take a 7-0 lead.

Crazy enough, that started a short spurt of scoring as the two teams combined for 12 more points in less than three minutes of action.

Eventually Reeltown found itself on top by a score of 13-6 13 seconds into the second quarter.

It didn’t take long, however, for the Rebels to tack on another touchdown less than five minutes later to extend the lead to 20-6.

When it was 13-6, the Yellow Jackets were in decent shape and still felt positive, knowing one play could tie the game, but that extra touchdown to put Reeltown up two scores, just seemed to suck the wind out of Vincent’s sails.

The Rebels went on to score twice more in the final 5:27 of the half to eventually grab a 34-6 halftime lead.

Reeltown scored just two more touchdowns in the second half to put up 48 points, but the Yellow Jackets added just one more touchdown to fall by the final score of 48-13.

Chris Hardie led Vincent with 140 rushing yards and both of Vincent’s touchdowns from 42 and 7 yards out.

Despite the loss, Vincent will take on a 1-7 Fayetteville team next week with a chance to clinch a spot in the postseason for the first time since 2014.