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Tigers season ends with loss to East Ridge
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Matthew Poss takes the ball downfield.

 

The DCHS Tiger football team’s season ended Friday night in Smithville after a hard-fought rumble with the East Ridge Pioneers ended with DeKalb trailing by five points. The Tigers, having earned a spot in the first round of the Class 3-A playoffs after clinching second place in the region, lost 23-18 on their home field.

 

DeKalb pretty much spotted East Ridge three points on the opening kickoff. DeKalb won the toss and elected to receive, when a recovered Matthew Poss fumble put the Pioneers in possession of the ball on the DeKalb 15-yard line. While East Ridge could not manage a first down against the Tiger defense, a 27-yard Mohammed Hasan field goal in a fourth-and-five situation put the Pioneers up 3-0 with 10:34 left in the first period of the game.

 

DeKalb captured the lead a couple of minutes later, when a six-yard Jessie Smith touchdown run put the icing on a 70-yard drive. Poss missed the EP attempt, and the Tigers took a 6-3 lead with 8:12 left on the clock in the first.

 

A blocked field goal gave the ball back to East Ridge, and a 73-yard drive ending in a 20-yard screen pass from Pioneer Quarterback Eric Bennett to Traneil Moore, last year’s Class 3A Mr. Football, put East Ridge back in the lead with barely a minute left to go in the first half. A failed EP attempt put the Pioneers ahead 9-6 at the half.

 

Moore put another one in the end zone early in the third quarter with a 68-yard touchdown run. C.J. Bond hit the EP, and the Pioneers took a 16-6 lead with 11:34 left in the third. A few minutes later Moore crossed the goal line for the third time in the contest.

 

With 7:49 left in the third, he scored on a 48-yard run, and Bond put the extra point up to give East Ridge a 23-6 lead.

 

The Tigers struggled to return from the deficit, chopping at East Ridge’s lead with a 40-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Cantrell to Matthew Poss with 2:26 left in the third period. A failed two-point conversion left DeKalb trailing 23-12.

 

The Tigers pulled to within five points of the Pioneers with 8:56 left in the game, capping a 46-yard drive with a five-yard touchdown run by Colton Seifert. Another failed two point conversion put the score at 23-18 Pioneers, where it remained when time ran out.

 

The Tigers season ends at 7-4 overall, with a 5-1 record in region play. A win against Upperman on Oct. 21 clinched second place in the region for DeKalb, and the Tigers earned a home-field advantage for the first round of play-offs.