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The Ariton Purple Cats football team (3-5), (2-3) defeated region opponent Zion Chapel 35-0 at home in Ariton on Thursday night.

The Purple Cats recorded 306 total yards of offense, with 82 through the air, and 224 on the ground.

Ariton quarterback Ian Senn completed 4 of his 5 passing attempts (80%) for a total of 82 yards.

No receiving touchdowns were, but a few long passes were caught.

Isaiah Johnson caught just one long pass for 40 yards, leading the receivers. Kyron Danzy caught one pass for 25 yards, and Jordan Smith caught one pass for 15 yards. 

The Purple Cats had five rushing touchdowns on Thursday.

The Purple Cat’s ground team was led by Cade Webb, who carried the ball twice for 96 yards and had a touchdown. Landon Thrash carried the ball 2 times for 72 yards and had a ouchdown. Isiah Lopez carried the ball twice for 18 yards and had a touchdown. Dozier carried the ball twice for 9 yards and had a touchdown, and Zach Phillips carried the ball once for 3 yards and had a touchdown.

The defensive players also had a big night, with 5 players recording 6 or more tackles, and an interception was also recorded during the game.

CJ McNabb had 9 tackles, Jackson Baker had 7 tackles, Landon Tyler had 6 tackles as well as the interception, and both Dewayne Riley and Nate Oliver had 6 tackles each.

Senn made all 5 of his point-after-touchdown attempts.

The Purple Cats scored 14 points in the first quarter and 21 points in the second quarter but were held scoreless in the last 2 quarters. The Rebels were unable to find the endzone or the uprights in all 4 quarters.

Head Coach Steven Kilcrease was pleased with the way his players performed on both sides of the ball.

“I thought we established things well up front,” said Kilcrease. “I thought on defense we ran with the football really well and tackled well.”

Kilcrease also explained how important it was to get so many different players into the game.

“We’ve got a lot of guys on the team that have played in one ballgame,” said Kilcrease. “Everybody got in there…and they all played hard.”

The win for the Purple Cats snapped a four-game losing streak.

“We’ve played 4 tough teams, and it felt good to get a win,” said Kilcrease. “The players were excited, and hopefully it gives us confidence going into next week.”

The Purple Cats will play region opponent Elba on Friday, Oct 16th, at home in Ariton.