Junior Tigers Win Championship, Shutout Smith County, 14-0

The DeKalb County Junior Tigers are the 2014 MTYFC champions after avenging their lone regular season loss by defeating the Smith County Owls 14-0 in Carthage Saturday.

Silas Cross rushed for 2 touchdowns and 119 yards in the Tigers Championship game.

Coach, John Kilgore and his Tigers reworked their game plan and benefited from the lessons they learned from the September 27th, 25-7,  defeat at the hands of the Owls and were able to pitch a shutout in the rematch.  The Tigers Defense was aggressive all game long, forcing a turnover and holding the Owls to just 63 total yards of offense.  Silas Cross was nothing short of spectacular in the game, rushing 27 times for 119 yards and 2 scores in the contest.

While Cross was the driving force for the Tigers, the win was a complete team effort, with every Tiger obviously playing with a purpose and fire on the day.  The Tigers never attempted a pass in the contest but put up 157 yards on the ground, while moving the chains 10 times during the game, while the Tiger Defense allowed just 2 first downs throughout 4 quarters of play.

Konner Young and the DC Defense dominated the Owls Saturday.

After forcing Smith County to punt in their first possession, quarterback Kolter Kilgore put together an impressive 14 play, 57 yard drive that took up the entire first quarter, ending in a Silas Cross dive from 1 yard out, to put the Tigers on the board first.  Cross would add the point after putting the Tigers up 7-0 with 7:56 left in the half.

The Owls could manage no further than the Tiger 16 yard line before being pushed back by penalties and a Joel Rader tackle on fourth down.  The Tigers would allow the clock to expire for the half and DeKalb went into halftime with the knowledge that they were 2 quarters away from hoisting a championship trophy for any DeKalb County football team in multiple years.

That dream would be shaken two plays into the second half when a water drenched ball would slip through Kilgore’s hands, handing the Owls the ball with excellent field position at the Tiger 43 yard line.

Diego Coronado had a big game kicking for the Tigers.

The Tiger Defense would immediately restore that dream.

Faced with a 4th down and 4, Stetson Agee and Tyler Estes would stop the Owls 2 yards short of the line, handing the ball back to the Tiger Offense and eliminating the Owl scoring threat.

Both teams would swap punts on their next 2 possessions to close out the third quarter, leaving the Tiger Faithful just 8 minutes to learn if their 3 month long odyssey and years of heartbreak at the hands of the Owls, would end in thrilling glory or, yet again, bone crushing defeat.

This time, it would be glory.

After putting together an 11 play, 40 yard drive, Cross would again power his way across the end zone stripe, pounding his way in from 1 yard out to increase the Tiger lead with just 2:05 left in the game.  Cross would convert the point after, giving the Tigers a 14-0 advantage and reducing any hopes Smith County had for victory to nothing shy of miraculous.

Even that was ended 1 play later by the Black and Gold Defense when DeKalb forced an Owl fumble effectively ending the game and handing the long awaited victory and the Championship to the Tigers.

For the game, behind Cross, Mason Winter carried the ball 2 times for 20 yards, Drew Vickers rushed four times for 12 yards and Konner Young ran twice for 9 yards.

Defensively, Diego Coronado led the team in tackles with 6 and Stetson Agee ended the game with 4.  Silas Cross, Conner Close and Tyler Estes each had 3 tackles on the day and Drew Vickers had 2.  Four Tigers, Konner Young, Shady Newport, Joel Rader and Ty Panker each had a tackle in the contest.

With the win, the Tigers finish the season at 7-1 and are crowned 2014 champs.

The 2014 MTYFC Junior Division Champions.