The DeKalb County High School Tigers suffered a heartbreaking loss last Friday night in a game that came down to the final seconds. Dominating into the third quarter, the Tigers lost a 21-0 lead and fell to the Trousdale Yellowjackets, the top-ranked 2A team in Tennessee. DeKalb remains second in the district, behind unbeaten Upperman.
Throughout the first half of the game DeKalb would come out strong and take advantage of mistakes made by the Yellowjackets. Trousdale would get the ball first and the Tigers’ defense would show they came to play ball. Starting from their own 27-yard line, Trousdale would take the ball to the 42. There, DeKalb would force a third and 13, when Rickey Spare would come away with an interception at midfield.
While the defense would get a quick start, the Tigers’ offense would not be so lucky. DeKalb would take the ball to Trousdale’s 43, but would be forced to punt.
Starting at their own 13-yard line, the Yellowjackets would get no further than their own 33, when, on fourth down, a fumbled snap gave DeKalb the ball at Trousdale’s 16-yard line. This time the DeKalb O would make them pay. On third and four, Tigers’ quarterback Steven Jennings tossed it to Aaron Patterson for a touchdown. With the extra point good, DeKalb took the early lead, 7-0.
With a false start penalty, and a sack by Spare, the Yellowjackets would go three-and-out on their next possession, with the punt giving the ball to the Tigers on Trousdale’s 44-yard line. As the second quarter began, the Tigers would drive down to the 23, but would get no further. Electing to try for a field goal from the Yellowjackets’ 25, Tigers’ Matthew Poss’ kick was short, and Trousdale would take over at the 20-yard line.
DeKalb’s defense would hold strong once again, forcing the Yellowjackets to punt from their own 30. Dustin Warner would return the ball to the DeKalb 40, where the Tigers would start their next scoring drive. With Jennings slipping in the backfield on the first play, the ball was handed to Devonta Milan, who ran it in 63 yards for a touchdown. With the extra point, DeKalb was up 14-0 with 6:59 left in the half.
The Yellowjackets’ next drive would take them deep into DeKalb territory and threaten to give Trousdale their first points of the game. With a third and four from the DeKalb 18, the Tiger D would get a big sack back to the 23-yard line. Electing to go for it on fourth down, Patterson would come away with an interception and squash the Yellowjacket threat.
The Tigers would do nothing on offense as they took the ball, and after a punt Trousdale would get the ball back at midfield. Again, the Yellowjackets threatened to put points on the board, driving down to the DeKalb 21-yard line. Facing a third and two, with six seconds left in the half, a pass by Yellowjackets’ QB Marquel Claiborne was again intercepted, this time by Lane Ball. DeKalb would go into the half with a 14-0 shutout.
At the beginning of the second half the Tigers looked to be on fire. Starting their drive at the Trousdale 45, a handoff to Milan took the ball down to the Yellowjackets’ 10-yard line. Three plays later, a Jennings pass found Patterson in the end zone. With the extra point, the Tigers were now up 21-0.
But Trousdale would not give up, and showed why they are a top-ranked team in the state. On the legs of Kenyan Harper and Zach Blackwell, the Yellowjackets would drive down to DeKalb’s 13-yard line. There, a quarterback keeper would take it in for six and give Trousdale its first points of the game. With 5:45 left in the third quarter, the score was DeKalb 21, Trousdale 7.
The Tigers would get the ball on their next possession at their own 40, but a run by Milan would quickly have them in Trousdale territory. DeKalb would push down to the 29, but that is where the drive would end. Going for it on fourth down, a run by Milan was stopped and the Yellowjackets took over on downs.
Trousdale would push back on their next drive, down to the DeKalb 40. There, a hand off to Dillon Burnley would give the Yellowjackets six more points. With a successful extra point, Trousdale had narrowed the lead, 21-14 with 1:08 left in the third quarter.
DeKalb would go three-and-out on their next possession and momentum of the game had clearly shifted to the Yellowjackets’ favor. With the DeKalb punt out-of-bounds, Trousdale would take over at the DeKalb 48. From there the Yellowjackets mounted a nine play drive that ended in a Burnley run to tie the game.
Again, the Tigers would go three-and-out on their next possession, but some life soon filled the DCHS sidelines. On Trousdale’s next possession, a fumble at DeKalb’s 26-yard line was recovered by Dustin Warner. The Tigers looked to take advantage of the miscue, moving the ball down to the Yellowjackets’ 19-yard line. It was there that the drive was stopped and Trousdale took over on downs.
Trousdale’s drive would begin with just over two minutes left in the game, when again the Tigers were handed an opportunity. With a second and eight from the DeKalb 45, a pass was intercepted by Patterson at the 14.
With 1:09 left in the game, it was the Tigers’ last chance to break the tie, but a fumble on the first play ended with Jennings falling on it at the nine-yard line. Then a pass to Luke Boss fell incomplete, followed by a long pass to Patterson, also incomplete. With 20 seconds left in the game and facing a fourth and 10 from the 14, the Tigers looked to punt the ball and go into overtime, but a snap over the head of Poss fell into the end zone. Poss attempted to field the ball, but the play ended in a safety, giving the Yellowjackets their first lead of the game with only a few seconds left on the clock.
The game would end, dashing the hopes of an upset, with a Trousdale victory 23-21.
"I’m really proud of our guys," Tigers Coach Steve Trapp told the Review. "They really fought hard. We’ve been telling them for two weeks, through the bye week, what type of football game this was going to be and what type of football game we needed it to be. Those guys made it like that."
Trapp said the team has prepared for games like this and he thinks his young team has crossed some major barriers. "We did a lot of great things. It was jus one of those games that came down to the very end, and we didn’t execute on a few things and had some bad breaks, but our defense played great. Our offense has got to be able to make a few more plays, but that was the type of game we wanted. We went straight to playing, but it just didn’t work out in the end."
The loss seemed to be an emotional loss for the Tigers, who put their heart into the game. Trapp said it was a learning experience. "When you invest so much, and you lose, it hurts. These guys have invested a lot in the last two weeks. They’ve put a whole lot in it. They’ve been a pleasure to work with these past couple weeks, and we can build off of this. It’s like I told them, as bad as this feels, and as great as it would have felt if we had won, there’s still some things out there, that if we accomplish them, they will feel a whole lot better than a victory out there tonight."
"This was a big stepping stone," Trapp continued. "I still think our program took a tremendous step. We’ve been telling our guys for two weeks, ‘we knew what to expect from Trousdale, but I don’t think they knew what to expect from us.’"
The Tigers’ next game is at home this Friday against York Institute.