The Junior Tigers are Super Bowl bound after beating the White County Warriors in Sparta Saturday, 30-27.

The win culminated a nearly perfect season, the DeKalb County Youth Football squad going 7-1, their only loss coming against the team they will face for all the marbles this Saturday – Fentress County.

“That was our only loss this season and it came during our first game,” said Junior Tiger Head Coach Lucas Bain of the 12-0 loss to kick off the season.

What followed was a dominant campaign as the Junior Tigers outscored their opponents 211-18 during the regular season scoring victims of 12-0 over White County, 24-0 over Smith County, 41-0 over Cumberland County, 47-0 over Upperman, and 29-6 over Overton. Their made their way to the title game by beating Upperman 51-0 in the first round of the playoffs before their close call at Sparta this past Saturday.

The Tigers found themselves holding on to take the win Saturday after carving out a 22-6 lead. Contributing points in the win were Ryan Lyons who went 50 yards on the first play of the game for a touchdown. His run was joined later by a 50-yard end around by Cole Bain. J.T. Summers then stole the ball from a Warrior ball carrier and ran the ball 40 yards to pay dirt. Nicholas Murphy added a 40 yard touchdown to the mix while Eli Jones helped shut down the Warrior offense, making five tackles for loss.

Coach Bain said several of the players on the team were part of the peewee league squad that went to the Super Bowl two years ago, meaning they have experience playing in the big game.

The Super Bowl will keep off at 5 p.m. Saturday at Monterey High School.