R.B. Hudson (4-0) is halfway to an undefeated season after defeating county rival Tipton-Durant (0-2) 20-8 on Tuesday night at Memorial Stadium. 

The Bulldogs’ defense kept Tipton out of the end zone until the game’s final seconds and held the Blue Devils to just 89 yards the entire game. The majority of Tipton’s yards came on a 53-yard drive in the final minute.

“The defense really won the game for us tonight,” said R.B. Hudson head coach Eugene Foster. “It was a stellar job by the defense. The linebackers did a great job because they were trying to get to the corners.”

R.B. Hudson’s offense didn’t have a great start to the game either.

After both teams traded three-and-outs, a false start penalty moved Tipton back to its own 3-yard line. On the next play from scrimmage, Jacorey Brown and the R.B. Hudson defense swarmed Chavantis Sanders in the end zone for a safety to give the Bulldogs an early 2-0 lead.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t a good first quarter for the Blue Devils. Tipton had -11 yards of offense in the opening quarter.

“Offensively our line has got to block, lineman have got to make adjustments there and we have to read those holes, those gaps better, a lot better,” said Tipton coach Courvoisea Fails. “Running backs we’ve got to carry the ball more strongly. We’ve got to come out of the hole with the intent to score the ball every time.”

R.B. Hudson’s offense found a rhythm with a 62-yard march in the second quarter. A 27-yard pass from quarterback Tyreshon Freeman to Nicholas Parnell set up a 1-yard run by Amarian Molette to push the lead to 8-0.

Freeman’s night was far from over. He was named the school’s homecoming king at halftime and scored a game-clinching 24-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

In the second half, the Bulldogs put Parnell into the shotgun to get their offense going. Foster calls the formation the “Red Gun” and it’s effective because Parnell is a threat to run, which helps open up the passing game.

“There are several ways we can use [Parnell] but that Red Gun, that option it’s hard to stop it,” Foster said.

Parnell ran three times to begin the Bulldogs’ first second half drive. Running back Tre’Derin Phillips did the rest, rushing for 16 yards and a score that made it 14-0 R.B. Hudson.

On the next Bulldogs’ drive, Freeman connected with Gabriel Wade for a 24-yard touchdown with 47 seconds left.

Tipton didn’t quit though and gained a little momentum going into next week’s rematch against R.B. Hudson at Southside High School.

The Blue Devils drove the ball 63 yards in the final seconds and Chavantis Sanders scored on a 7-yard run with 8 seconds left to make the score 20-6.

R.B. Hudson had 185 total yards in the game, with 132 of those coming in the second half.

The teams meet again Tuesday at Southside.