Sometimes you eat the bear … and sometimes the bear eats you. Friday, in Lewisburg it was the Marshall County Tigers digging in, jumping to an early 28-0 head start.

With 2:12 left in the first half, DeKalb had the ball on its own 19-yard line and QB Tyler Cantrell was under pressure by the Marshall D and had to get rid of the football. Unfortunately, Billy Cheek, Marshall’s 6-foot, 247-pound MLB was in the right place at the right time and grabbed the pass for a pick-6 lumbering into the end zone giving Marshall a 35-0 halftime advantage.

Still, DeKalb didn’t go quietly into that good night, but Marshall – undefeated in its league and ranked 47 in the state - was the toughest opponent the DeKalb Tigers have faced all year and would take the TSSAA Class 4A playoff win 42-0, ending DeKalb’s season at 3-8.

The DeKalb Tigers had some bright spots Friday, as every offensive score Marshall made was a passing play as the Tiger defense kept Marshall’s running game to a minimum. 

“One of our goals for this program is to get these extra weeks in and make it to the playoffs,” said DCHS Tiger Football Head Coach Steve Trapp. “We’ve been nine out of the last 10 years so that’s a sequence or a run that’s never happened before in DeKalb County and that’s something that we want to continue.”

DeKalb suffered from offsides penalties, miscues and turnovers during the game which worked in Marshall County’s favor.

“Ultimately though, we’d like to enter the playoffs at something better than 3-7. To be honest I don’t think any 3-7 team should have the right to go to the playoffs but we were the fourth best team in our region so we did earn our way into this,” said Trapp. 

“We’re losing some good kids as seniors and I really appreciate all the good things they’ve done for us and the time they’ve spent in the program. Really for them, I want them to take away from the program a sense of that it’s helped them be a better person.

“As far as all the guys coming back, we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Trapp said. “We’ll be a very young football team next year and it won’t be too long before we get after it again. I appreciate these guys, the parents who made the trip to it. It was a rough night against a good football team. I think they might  have a shot at the semi-finals with chance to go to Cookeville but we’ll have to see how it plays out.” 

Marshall County (8-3) advances to the second round of the playoffs facing Springfield next Friday night, Nov. 10.