A defense to remember: Hartselle’s historic defense looking to go down as one of school’s best
By Caleb Suggs
For the Enquirer
1921 was an eventful year.
Warren G. Harding was inaugurated as the 29th president of the United States. Charlie Chaplin released his first feature-length movie. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was unveiled at Arlington National Cemetery, and Babe Ruth broke a 23-year-old home run record.
Also, 1921 was also the last time the Hartselle Tigers posted four straight shutouts — until last week.
With Hartselle’s 51-0 win over Woodlawn on Thursday, the Tigers posted their fourth straight shutout of the season, adding to shutout wins over Jackson-Olin, Columbia and Decatur.
“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, if you can shut out four teams in four straight weeks, you’re doing something right,” said senior defensive end Porter Simmons.
Nobody’s more excited about the Tigers’ historic run than first-year Hartselle head coach Bert Newton. In that span of four games, his team has defeated their opponents by a combined 207-0.
“Anytime you can get a zero on the board, especially in this day and age of offense, it’s impressive because it’s hard not to give up a big shot or a big run,” Newton said. “Getting one zero on the board is impressive, but four in four weeks is unheard, I don’t care who you’re playing.”
Players and coaches were quick to stress what the most important part of those shutout wins was to them.
“I think it says something about the standard of defense we have, because the first-string defense gets a shutout, but then we put our backups in and they’re able to get a shutout as well,” said senior linebacker Jamison Falciani.
Hartselle’s Jamison Falciani (10) celebrates a huge tackle against Austin. Falciani leads the Tigers’ defense in total tackles with 20. Photo by Tristan Holmes.
“I think that’s my favorite part about the whole thing,” Newton added. “Each of those games we have a 40-plus point lead and we’re not going to keep our starters in. So the third and fourth quarters of those games have been mainly young guys, and they’ve held their own. The even cooler part about that is our older guys are right there on the sidelines cheering them on with the same excitement they would have if they were on the field.”
A motivating loss
The start of the season wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the Tigers’ defense, as they surrendered 35 points in a season-opening loss to Austin.
The most frustrating part for the Tigers is a Falciani pick-six seemingly would’ve ended the game in a 28-14 win for Hartselle. However, a roughing the passer penalty negated the play and gave the ball back to Austin.
The Black Bears would win in double overtime, scoring 21 points in the final minute of the fourth quarter and in overtime.
“I feel like we could have beat them. I feel like we should have because we made the play that could’ve ended it,” Falciani said. “That was motivating for us because Austin is a great team, but we felt like we were better and we let mental mistakes get in the way.”
While no one wants to lose a rivalry game, losing a season opener by a single point to a great non-region foe isn’t something to be ashamed of.
Hartselle’s defense didn’t see it that way.
“We thought some mental errors and dumb decisions cost us that game,” Simmons said. “It was nothing but motivation after that.”
Determined to not let it happen again, Hartselle’s senior defenders decided to do something about it.
“We show up for film on Sunday, and Porter Simmons is leading a players-only meeting,” Newton said. “They had gotten there early, and there was so much leadership that was shown because they were upset with how that first game had gone down. Since then, our defense has been really locked in.”
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Living up to a standard
In recent years, Hartselle has made a name for itself with high-scoring offenses.
The Tigers averaged 41 points per game in 2021 and 2022, 30 a game in 2023 and currently lead all of Class 6A with 48 points per game.
Historically, however, the Tigers have also been known for smash-mouth defense.
“When you think of Hartselle football, you think of great defense,” Simmons said. “You think of defenses that get after you, that like to hit people. It’s a tough standard to live up to.”
October, however, brings a much different challenge.
Starting Friday, Hartselle will play a region stretch that includes games at Cullman, vs. Athens and Jasper, and at Muscle Shoals.
“Coach (Michael) Cole (Hartselle’s defensive coordinator) always tells us when you sign your name to something, you play at the same level all the time. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Monday practice, a Thursday walkthrough, a game against Columbia or a game against Muscle Shoals,” Falciani said. “You always play the same and for us, we try to just go out and be Hartselle. If we do that, I think we can be as good against anybody we play.”
In 1980 the Tigers allowed just nine points a game en route to the state finals, and in 2011 they allowed just nine a game again while going on to win the school’s first state title.
The current defense is allowing just seven points per game, but the most crucial contests are still ahead.
Hartselle’s defense thinks it’s up to the challenge
“I’m going to say this: This will be a Hartselle defense for everyone to remember,” Simmons said.
