By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The Troup Tigers took control early, and they never let up on the way to a 53-14 victory over home-standing Pickens County on Friday night in the second round of the Class AAAA state playoffs.

Troup (11-1) has advanced to the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2003, and it will visit Cairo on Friday with a berth in the semifinals on the line.

It was impressive effort against a Pickens County team that came in 11-0 and boasting one of the state’s most explosive offenses.

The Dragons found themselves trailing 14-0 moments into the game, though, and they never recovered.

“It was the best game we played all year,” Troup head coach Tanner Glisson said. “We beat a good football team tonight.”

The Tigers scored on their first two offensive plays to take a 14-0 lead, and they were ahead 28-0 after one quarter, and 41-0 at the half.

The game had long since been decided when Pickens County finally found the end zone in the third quarter.

“I think it being a win or go home situation, it didn’t take much to get their attention, and we just kept our foot on the gas,” Glisson said.

Kobe Hudson, Troup’s outstanding junior quarterback who was the Region 5-AAAA player of the year, had a huge night.

Hudson had two touchdown runs, and he also had a pair of scoring passes to Ja’Rell Smith.

Trey Williams also had two touchdown runs, and Devon Hill returned an interception for a score.

“I felt like we could move the ball and score points,” Glisson said. “I felt the biggest question was could our defense get stops. And we gave up that one really late, but other than that we did a good job.”