Covington football keeps rolling during rout of river rival Ripley

By  Steve Holt

Special to The Leader

The renewal of the Hatchie River Rivalry last Friday was nightmarish for the Ripley Tigers (0-5,0-3) who endured a 12^th consecutive loss to the Chargers 58-0.

“The offense and defense aquitted themselves pretty well, said head Coach J R Kirby. “ I’d give us a “B” overall. We have some issues to clean up in regard to penalties and in our up tempo offensive set. We threw the ball, but not effectively. That needs work.”

Jalen Holland, Germaine Allen and Jermey Cage were solid on defense. Ripley crossed the 50 once in the game, but it was the result of penalties. The Tigers were held to 60 net yards on offense completing 1 of 8 pass attempts for 3 yards with an interception (Shawn Maclin) and 57 yards on 30 rushing attempts. The Charger defense has held six opponents to 71 points and 757 total yards.

Covington (6-0, 2-0) had the ground game running wide open. Charger backs amassed 334 yards on 37 carries adding 29 passing yards on 1 of 5 attempts by Walker Davis. Jaheim Smith topped the night with 168 yards and 3 TDs on 13 carries. To date he has 1076 yards on 90 carries with 17 TDs.  Collen Winfrey bulled his way for 72 yards and 2 TDs on 10 carries. For the season, he has 545 yards and 9 TDs on 71 carries.  Davis rushed 7 times for 43 yards and a TD. He has 12 TDs and 311 rushing yards on 39 carries. Mac Wilson added a TD and 49 yards on 4 rushing attempts.

Ty Waddell was 8/8 on PATs vaulting him past Gabe Wellington’s 157 on the All-time list with 164 and counting. The Charger offense overall has 2238 rushing yards yards and 44 TDs to this point in 2025 and, with passing totals, 2,432 total yards.

Next up are the Bolivar Tigers at 7:00 pm on Oct. 3 at Bolivar on their Homecoming.

“This will be a big game for them” Kirby said. “They have some good athletes. We have to be ready. We have reached the point in the season that our focus has to be us getting together on and off the field and focusing on the long game. A 15 game season and a gold ball is the goal. It’s up to us as players and coaches.”