Corsicana —
We all had that winning feeling back Friday night.
The Tigers were driving for the go-ahead score, about to put the exclamation point on a 34-point comeback. We were on the edge of our seats. The Tigers on the verge of evening the score after last week’s blown lead at Denton Ryan.
Of course you know the rest of the story. Red Oak puts in Jeremiah Gaines, their tight end/receiver/running back, who had run roughshod over the Tigers all day, at linebacker. Gaines beats a block in the backfield and tackles Tygarius Sheffield for an 8-yard loss. Devontay Bell can’t complete a fourth-down pass.
Ball game.
0-2.
Another week of dealing with that losing feeling.
This isn’t the NFL or college, where losses early in the season matter. We’re still a month away from the Oct. 12 opener against Tyler John Tyler (which dropped out of the No. 1 spot in the AP’s Class 4A with an upset loss to the Tigers’ old district foe Lancaster).
The only bad thing about a loss on Sept. 7 is it makes it harder to win the next game, which happens to be the Tigers’ home opener Friday night against Forney.
The Jackrabbits have opened the season at 1-1 with a win over Royse City and a loss to Lovejoy. But at this point, with two well-played halves and two bad ones, this is all about the Tigers getting better.
Here’s what we know — Bell can run it and the running backs are improving. The offensive line is stable. The defense is quick and shows flashes. The secondary is pretty good and has yet to give up a big play.
Now for what’s gone wrong — the passing game needs to be more consistent. The tackling has to get better, and more than that, the Tigers need to be the more physical team in a game.
Players that are counted on need to play every week. What made last year’s state semifinal team so good — and it’s high time we stopped talking about what the 2011 team had — was that a bunch of players could be counted on during the games and also when they were away from the coaching staff and their teammates.
It’d be easy to panic about this season, but why?
Red Oak set up to be a tough game, and if the Tigers hadn’t have relaxed in the final seconds of the first half Friday night and let the Hawks’ backup running back breeze through them like the fall winds that came Saturday, the Tigers wouldn’t have needed one more score.
They would have been driving to seal a win.
Here’s hoping that a young team trying to figure out what it takes got the message. It’s all about team and playing as one.
Sports
Tiger Tuesday: Football team can come together, but it will take everyone
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GC Softball: Sam Rayburn ends Hubbard's run, 7-2
The Hubbard Lady Jags' magical playoff run came to an end against the Sam Rayburn Lady Rebels, keeping Hubbard just short of getting to the state tournament. Dallas Fletcher hit a two-run home run before Sam Rayburn pulled away for a 7-2 victory over the Lady Jaguars in the Class 1A Region II final on Friday night.
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GC Baseball: Dawson, Windthorst washed out in Weatherford
After two hours of watching the rain pound the infield tarp and lightning flash intermittently, Dawson and Windthorst coaches said no more to Weatherford. The Trojans have the lead through four innings, 7-6.
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JUCO World Series: The goods ... Navarro knows what it takes
The Navarro Bulldogs won the 2011 JUCO World Series the way most baseball championships are won. With a deep pitching staff. An unsung hero. Great defense. And a defining moment, catcher J.T. Files’ walkoff home run in the national championship game.
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Navarro County Pro Rodeo set to hit town next week
It’s almost rodeo time in Navarro County. The Navarro County Pro Rodeo is coming to town next weekend at the Navarro County Youth Exposition Center. Gates will open at 6 p.m. both Friday, May 31, and Saturday, June 1, with the rodeo beginning about 8 p.m.
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Melton collects two more hits, but Aggies fall to Miss. St., 6-4
Adam Frazier went 4 for 5 with an RBI and Mississippi State beat Texas A&M 6-4 Thursday night in the Southeastern Conference tournament. Hunter Melton was 2 for 4 with an RBI single in the first.
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GC Baseball: Unbelievable - Windthorst plates 6 in seventh to stun Dawson
Bo Moore lives by the run. He likes to put pressure on the opponent. A three-run seventh looked like just enough cushion in a five-run game. But it wasn’t. Windthorst scored six runs, five with two outs, to steal a 7-6 win from Dawson in Game 1 of the Region II-1A seminfinals at Weatherford College.
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NC Baseball: Bloodlines run deep for top hurler
Lukas Schiraldi will likely be drafted in the first five to six rounds in June’s Major League Baseball draft. Navarro’s right-hander already has signed with the University of Texas. His baseball career will continue at the next level after the JUCO World Series.
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Melton homers again as A&M tops Vanderbilt, 5-0
Parker Ray pitched eight-plus innings to lead Texas A&M to a 5-0 victory over top-seeded Vanderbilt on Wednesday in the second round of the Southeastern Conference baseball tournament. Hunter Melton of Corsicana homered for the second straight day.
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GC Softball: Single focus - Hubbard has sights set on steady Sam Rayburn
When Tuesday’s rains blew through Hubbard, blowing up the last half of practice, the Lady Jags loaded up, and went home. They can only hope to be loading up and going south next week. Hubbard (24-6-1) has a chance to set GPS devices for Austin if the Lady Jags can get past Sam Rayburn (28-2) Friday in the Region II-1A championship.
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Area Schedule: Updated to correct Navarro's game time Saturday
Here is an updated schedule for this week's three remaining Golden Circle sports teams: Navarro baseball, Dawson baseball and Hubbard softball. It corrects the game time for Navarro, which is playing in the JUCO World Series in Colorado, on Mountain Time.
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