Tigers Fall in Battle of Center Hill
By Chris Tramel
The DeKalb County Tigers are still looking for their first win of the season after falling to the Upperman Bees last week. The annual "Battle of Center Hill" came in a short week for both teams, after concerns over the remnants of Hurricane Laura moving through the area caused the game to be moved forward, from Friday, to Thursday night.
The schedule change also caused the DMS Saints to initially move their scheduled Thursday night home game against Cumberland County, to an away game. But, after not being able to find available referees to work the game on short notice, the game was postponed until September 24.
For the Tigers, it would yet another tale of two halves, keeping the game tight in the first half, then mistakes letting the game get away from them in the second.
The first quarter would be a back and forth between both teams. DeKalb would get the ball first, but would be unable to convert and would punt from their own 32.
The Bees would start their first drive on their own 43, and looked to score early. Upperman would drive all the way down to the DeKalb 13, but on a pass play a fumble recovered by Isaac Knowles gave the Tigers the ball at their own 12.
With DeKalb's second possession, the Tigers would only move the ball to their own 44, where they would punt.
Again, the Bees looked to score, taking the ball down to the Tigers' 18, but their the drive would stall. After losing two yards, Upperman went for it on an fourth and 12 from the DeKalb 20. A quarterback sack back at the 30, killed the drive and gave DeKalb back the ball.
As the game went into the second quarter, the Tigers had only moved the ball six yards, and on a fourth down, once again punted. The kick backed the Bees up, to their own 24.
There, Upperman would again not be able to move the ball, and after gaining only two yards would punt off to the Tigers.
DeKalb would get the ball at their own 32, but after a false start, then a holding penalty, they would be backed up to their own 13. A couple of QB keepers would move the Tigers only to their own 24, where they would punt it back to the Bees.
The Bees would start at their own 39, and this time make the Tigers pay. With a couple of carries by Terrance Dedmon, and a couple of keepers by Bees QB Thomas Ensor, Upperman moved the ball to the Tigers' 42. There, another carry up the middle by Dedmon broke loose for a touchdown, with 4:50 left in the half. With an extra point kick by Joshua Manis, the Bees were on the board, 7-0.
On the kickoff, Desmond Nokes returned the ball to the Upperman 46, setting the Tigers up for a scoring drive of their own. A QB keep by Axel Aldino gave DeKalb a first down at the 31, then a pair of runs by Colby Barnes pushed the Tigers to the 20. Another keep by Aldino on the next play moved the ball to the 17, then a pass to Nokes set them up at the four yard line. The next play, Aldino ran it in himself for the TD, with 2:09 left in the half. Jasper Kleparek's extra point kick was good, and the game was tied, 7-7.
As the second half began, DeKalb kicked off the Upperman and poor coverage cost the Tigers a TD. The Bees' Daniel Metzgar ran the 82-yard return in for six. With the extra point attempt good, Upperman was up 14-7, with 11:40 left in the third quarter.
On the kickoff, DeKalb would start at their own 26 and would only be able to move to the 32. The fourth down punt, gave the Bees the ball at their own 37, and Upperman would again strike.
A run by Ty Dutchess moved the ball to the Upperman 42, then Dutchess was handed the ball again, and he would break loose for a touchdown. With the extra point, the Bees were up 21-7 with 8:38 left in the third.
After the kickoff, DeKalb began at their own 30 yard line. From there, an Aldino pass to Knowles took them to the Upperman 47. After a false start penalty, Aldino again found Knowles for a pass down to the Bees' 11. There, after an incomplete to Travante Alexander, Aldino found Nokes in the endzone for six. With Kleparek's extra point, the Tigers had cut the Bees' lead, 21-14, with 6:02 left in the third.
The Bees next drive would start at their own 44, and the Tigers would get a big dose of Dedmon on the drive. Runs by Dedmon, and a QB keeper, had Upperman down to the DeKalb five yard line. Then, Ensor would keep it himself and take it in for a touchdown. The point after was blocked by Tiger Wil Farris, but the Bees were up 27-14 with 26 seconds left in the third.
In the fourth quarter, it was a time management game. Upperman stuck to the ground game, eating up precious time on the game clock, while DeKalb went to the passing game, hoping for quick strikes. The Tigers had opportunities, but several dropped passes killed drives.
The Tigers would be able to add another touchdown in the final moments of the game. DeKalb's final drive would start back at their own 14. Passes to Alexander and Nokes would push the Tigers down to the Upperman 10. From there, an Aldino pass to Evan Jones was good for a touchdown. With the extra point, the Upperman lead was 27-21, but there were only 15 second left in the game.
An onside kick attempt went out of bounds and the game would end with Upperman once again taking home "The Oar," the “The Battle of Center Hill” trophy awarded to the game winner each year.
After the game Head Coach Steve Trapp said it all came down to execution. "We've got to make plays. It's about execution. We had some dropped footballs out there tonight. We had some shot plays that would have been really big plays. We hit some of course, but we missed some that were wide open. We've got to make those plays."
"Defensively, we bowed our necks. You can't give up those big plays. Coming out of halftime, you can't give up a kickoff return like that. Every coach that coaches football gives the same speech, come out, make sure you're focused, take care even if they're kicking off or kick return. Our guys have just got to do a better job coming out. I mean, the beginning of the game last week, first play, touchdown, then this week we come out after halftime, and touchdown. Ultimately, that was the difference in the game. You've got to play every snap."
Coach Trapp also saw some bright spots in the game. "There are some things we improved on. Our extra points were great, Jasper did a pretty good job. I thought Aldino did a great job with his reads. Offensively, I think we moved the ball, but we shot ourselves in the foot again with our execution on catching footballs."
"Everything has got to get better," Trapp said. "I think the biggest thing is our mindset, and the heart that we put out here. These guys played hard, but we kind of do it in waves. It's got to be consistent, play in and play out. We can't have a lack of focus, and that's on us as coaches to make sure we get that right. We will. We've been here before. We're playing better football at this point than we were last year. We have room to improve and have a great season ahead of us."
The Tigers will next travel to Stone Memorial, in Crossville, next Friday for their first regional game of the season.
Photos:
Tigers1 - It was some tough running for the Tigers' Colby Barnes during the game against Upperman.
Tigers2 - Desmond Nokes with a kickoff return for the Tigers.
