Two early turnovers led to two Livingston Academy touchdowns, the Tigers digging themselves an early hole they couldn’t claw their way out of as the Wildcats spoiled homecoming with a 27 to 6 defeat.
The Livingston win came despite the DeKalb County
offense coming alive, mounting two long, time-consuming drives, one using up
most of the second quarter, the other eating up most of the third. However, the
Tigers came up empty both times, unable to cut into the early lead they spotted
the Wildcats.
Livingston Academy first capitalized on an errant Axel Aldino pass, leaving them a short field in the waning moments of the first quarter after the teams had traded possessions, the earlier Livingston drive ending in a missed field goal. Wildcat runningback Mitchell Ayers capped the 30 yard drive with a three yard burst on the first play of the second quarter, making the Tigers pay for the miscue.
The Tigers would hold on to the ball their next drive, going on a 15-play, nearly nine-minute drive which stalled and failed on a fourth down try as the half expired.
DeKalb County would again go on a long
march when they got their hands on the ball in the third quarter, eating up
seven minutes but coming one yard short of pay dirt when they were stone-walled
at the Livingston one-yard-line on fourth down.
Livingston gave the Tigers a ray of hope when they fumbled the ball away on their first possession of the fourth quarter. The Tigers thanked them with a six play drive which included a 15 yard jaunt by runningback Tre Ladet before Aldino hit Grayson Redmon with a 27-yard pass for a touchdown. A missed conversion left the score 14-6 at the 9:47 mark of the fourth.
The loss dropped the Tigers to 2-5 on the season as they travel to Smith County next week for a 7 p.m. kick off.
