Corsicana Daily Sun, Corsicana, Texas

Sports

Discussion

September 3, 2012

Tiger Tuesday: An encouraging game

Tigers headed in right direction

By Todd Wills Corsicana Daily Sun

Corsicana — One word kept coming up this weekend when I was asked about the Tigers’ 40-28 loss at Denton Ryan on Friday night.

My response, “encouraging.”

It’s not often you use that positive of a word when summing up the result of a game in which you blew a 22-point lead and were leading going into the final quarter.

But as Chuck points out well in his first “Point After” column, these Tigers are headed in the right direction even after getting outscored 37-6 in the second half.

The Tigers played as good of a first half as I’ve seen them play. Phil Castles and his staff out-coached one of high school’s best, Joey Florence, for a half. It was a dream start for the Tigers.

Unfortunately, Ryan adjusted in the second half, Florence and his staff pulled the Raiders together and they took advantage of a Tiger team that put all the energy they had into the first half.

Now the Tigers have to find a way to play at Friday’s level for 48 minutes. It’s a challenge they started having to meet Monday in practice.

“We have to finish,” Castles said. “We’re going to do something extra in every drill we do this week. We’re going to learn how to finish.

“It was an encouraging game. Our defense was flying around making some of the biggest hits we’ve ever made. Now we have to bottle that up for four quarters.”

The Tigers are hoping they developed some depth against Ryan. With key starters such as safeties Donovan Fields and Bobby Wallace dealing with cramps in the second half, we saw some mistakes made by their backups — Ryan smartly took advantage of Fields’ departure, going deep on its first play after he left and getting down to the 1-yard line, where the Raiders scored to cut the Tigers’ lead to 22-10.

Ryan ran off 31 straight points to turn the game around. The Tigers did get some plays late by backups. Kaley Washington scooped up a fumble and scored to cut Ryan’s lead to 31-29 with 4:31 left.

Players that had to step up after being backups last year did. Zach Rash, Jarrett Hall and Cedric Weaver all made big plays in the first half.

Wallace caught a deep ball from Devontay Bell. Tygarius Sheffield ran hard backing up Fields.

What the Tigers need now is to match Bell’s, and particularly linebacker Jacob Grayson’s intensity for four quarters. When you think back to Friday, while his teammates appeared to slow down a little, No. 44 in white kept making play after play.

“(Jacob) was all over the place,” Castles said. “He had an unbelievable game.”

When the Tigers can play at that level for four quarters, they’ll be a team that will finish off a win against a great foe like Ryan.

Text Only
Sports
House Ads
AP Video
Probe Begins After Conn. Commuter Trains Crash NTSB Begins Investigation Into Conn. Train Crash Lotto Fever Sweeps the Country Conn. Commuter Trains Collide; 60 Go to Hospital Coffee Run Leads to Hatchet Hitchhiker Arrest Fmr. IRS Head Insists No Politics in Targeting CDC: Fecal Bacteria Common in Swimming Pools $1 Million in Jewels Stolen at Cannes Film Fest NM Mom Chases Down Child Abductor Raw: Crash Sends Car Into Fla. Pool Raw: Obama Sits Down With Elementary Kids Raw: Bear Falls From Tampa Tree Ousted IRS Chief: Errors Not Caused by Politics Terror Suspect Due in Court in Idaho Friday Raw: Driver Ejected From Truck, Over Bridge Could Tobacco Be the Next Biofuel? Wash. State Releases Draft Rules for Legal Pot Dying Man's Blinks Lead to Murder Conviction Officials: Texas Tornado Likely Had 200 Mph Wind Brothers Arrested in NOLA Parade Shooting
Twitter Updates
Follow me on Twitter
Community Calendar
Loading…
Events by eviesays.com