ATHENS — Tucker Carter accounted for five touchdowns Saturday night to lead the 11th-ranked Trinity Valley Community College Cardinals to a 38-20 win against the Kilgore College Rangers at Bruce Field in a Southwest Junior College Football Conference opener.

Tucker, who is now 4-0 as a starter, completed 18 of 29 passes for 272 yards and four touchdowns and ran for a score as Coach Brad Smiley’s squad remained unbeaten at 3-0.

The 6-2 Allen sophomore hit six of his first seven passes, including a 34-yard scoring strike to Adrian Henderson and a 44-yarder to Derel Walker for a quick 14-0 lead.

Clifford Stokes set up the first TVCC score, intercepting Kilgore quarterback Andrew Jackson on the second play of the game. The Cardinals needed eight plays to complete the 64-yard scoring march.

After Kilgore missed a 44-yard field goal on its third possession, Carter led the Cardinals on a drive that covered 74 yards and resulted in Walker covering the final 44 after catching his second pass of the game.

But as satisfying as the Cardinals’ 14-0 lead may have been to a large Patriots Day/Family Day crowd, it did not stand up. Kilgore, winless in three outings, came back in the second quarter.

The Rangers owned the second quarter and pushed the Cardinal defense around with scoring drives of 90 and 85 yards. Tyler Copeland, who relieved Jackson at quarterback early in the first quarter, got Kilgore on the scoreboard with a 22-yard pass to Ricky Collins. He then hit Mason Powledge from seven yards out for the equalizer with three seconds left in the half.

In between the Kilgore touchdowns, the Cardinals had a 61-yard touchdown pass from Deric Davis to Jake Brown wiped out on an ineligible receiver downfield penalty.

TVCC re-established control on the opening drive of the second half. The Cardinals marched 60 yards in six, the final 14 on a Carter pass to Brown. Saul Martinez, who hit five extra points and booted a 25-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, added the PAT for a 21-14 lead.

Brown, who finished with six receptions and 95 yards, later caught a 33-yard touchdown pass from Carter, putting the Cardinals up 35-14.

The TVCC defense answered the challenge in the second half, especially in the third quarter. After having surrendered 13 first downs 238 yards (127 rushing and 111 passing) in the first half, the Cardinals held three first downs (none in the third quarter) and 31 yards rushing in the final two quarters.

The Cardinals also came up with two turnover in in the second half.

Johntae Odom recovered a fumble on the Kilgore one-yard line after Cardinal punter Brad Dunavant had pinned the Rangers there with a 38-yard punt. Jacoby Thomas came up with the other recovered on the TVCC one-yard line to turn Kilgore back on its most serious scoring threat in the final two quarters.

The Cardinals are open this week. They return to action Saturday, Sept. 24, at Tyler in a 7 p.m. kickoff.

CARDINALS 38, RANGERS 20

    KC    TVCC

First Downs    16    17

Rushing Yards    43-122    29-137    

Passing Yards    186    284

Total Yards    308    421

Passes Att.    33    31

Passes Comp.    20    19

Interceptions    1    0

Fumbles/Lost    3/2    1/0

Penalties    11/104    13/88

Punts    4/43.2    5/39.9

Score By Quarters

Kilgore    7    7    14    10 — 38

TVCC    0    14    0    6 — 20

Scoring Summary

TVCC -- Adrian Henderson 34 pass from Tucker Carter (Saul Martinez kick good)

TVCC -- Derel Walker 44 pass from Carter (Martinez kick good)

KC -- Ricky Collins 22 pass from Tyler Copeland (Dyland Nowak kick good)

KC -- Mason Powledge 7 pass from Copeland (Nowak kick good)

TVCC -- Jake Brown 14 pass from Carter (Martinez kick good)

TVCC -- Carter 1 run (Martinez kick good)

TVCC -- Brown 33 pass from Carter (Martinez kick good)

TVCC -- Martinez 25 FG

KC -- Vincent Moore 3 run (kick fails)

Individual statistics

RUSHING -- KC: Vincent Moore 14-58; Ja’mell Woodard 12-45; Jamal Anderson 7-26; Tyler Copeland 6-22. TVCC: Vedial Johnson 7-64; Tucker Carter 7-32; Jake Brown 2-18; Mason Hayes 9-14; Drew Hellriegel 1-7; Deric Davis 2-1; James Jackson 1-1.

RECEIVING -- KC: Ricky Collins 6-74-1;  Stokes 3-71-0; Jamal Anderson 2-41-0; Mason Powledge 3-11-1; Ed’Marques Battles 1-9-0; Markell Templeton 1-5-0; Norman Darden 1-3-0; Vincent Moore 1-1-0; Ja’mell Woodard 1-(-)5. TVCC: Jake Brown 7-124; James Jackson 5-62; Derel Walker 2-53; Adrian Henderson 1-34; Vedial Johnson 1-6; K’Sean Wesley 1-5; Drew Hellriegel 1-5; Domanick Turner 1-1.

PASSING -- KC: Tyler Copeland 17-26-199-2-1; Andrew Jackson 3-7-21-0-1. TVCC: Tucker Carter 18-29-272-4-0; Deric Davis 1-2-12-0-0.