Tigers fall to Georgetown

For the third time in the last three years, the Tigers have failed to get past the bi-district round in football. The bi-district opponents have been from the tough Cedar Park district next to us, making it hard to get wins. In fact, this year, all four of the District 26- 5A representatives were eliminated in the first round. For the Tigers, this year was a rematch of last year when they narrowly won over Georgetown. One had to know the Eagles sore had been festering for a full year and an even larger dose of salt had been thrown in the wound by their bidistrict loss to the Tigers baseball team.

One can also not be thrown by comparing records and polls. Georgetown was 5-5 vs the Tigers 10-0 and #6 ranking in the state. As it turned out, the Eagles played a much stronger schedule and had lost four of those games by four points. However, no one from the Tigers side could have foreseen the ease the Eagles moved up and down the field, nor the quality of their 6'4, 220-plus-pound QB that could do it all in the 63-56 beatdown.

Before the Tigers knew what happened, they trailed 21-0 by quarters end. The Eagles took the opening kickoff and marched 75 yards in 13 plays and then executed a perfect onside kick to recover on the 50. Three plays later, a 47-yard touchdown pass made it 14-0 with 7:08 remaining. The Tigers finally got their hands on the ball but were forced to punt. The Eagles moved the ball 83 yards in 7 plays for another score.

On the first play of the second quarter, Preston Alford broke up the middle for 13 and the initial Tiger score. Back came Georgetown to score on a 48-yard quarterback run and a 45-yard touchdown pass to up the ante to 35-7. The Tigers were not about to quit and roared back with an Alford twoyard touchdown run and Austin Novosad's 34-yardtouchdown pass to Kyle Koch to breathe life in the game at 35-21.

DS took the second half kickoff and promptly put the ball on the ground and the Eagles made quick work of those 18 yards. First play of next possession Novosad hit Koch on the sideline where two Eagles bounced off him in a botched tackle attempt and he obliged with a 64-yard touchdown pass. Georgetown scored again. 49-28. Next play Alford burst up the middle and out-legged everyone for another 64-yard touchdown run. On the very next play, Chase Whisenant stepped in front of the receiver and set the Tigers up on the 42. Another Novosad-Koch pass went for 15 yards and the score to bring the Tigers within seven at 49-42.

The Tigers just could not contain the Eagles offense as the QB scored from the eight. They would continue to swap scores. Alford scored from the three but the QB would hit a 17 pass to raise the margin with 5.59 remaining. The Tigers moved the ball 66 yards in six plays, a 5 pass to Jalen Sams. Finally, the defense would stop the Eagles at the 35 to give DS 1.50 to go 65 yards. They passed it down to the ten with seconds remaining only to have an Eagle defender step in front of the potential tying score to preserve their victory. What was most frustrating was the fact the Eagles refused to punt on fourth downs and kept turning them into first downs.

Game stats (DS first): First downs: 27-30; Rushing: 19-172, 51-311; Passing: 388-327; Passes: 25-40-1, 21-33-1; Punts: 1-36, 1-47; Penalties: 3-30, 7-64; Fumbles lost: 1-1, 0-2.

Tiger individual stats: Rushing: Alford 15-183 4TD; Koch 1-0; Novosad 3-(-) 11. Passing: Novosad 25-40-1 4TD; Receiving: Koch 13-293 3TD; Noah Lawyer 3-26; Alford 3-18; Jalen Sams 2-18 TD; Walker Wright 2-10; Garon Duncan 1-19; Boston Papp 1-4. KOR: Kade Curry 2-16; Luke Hudson 1-7. Int: Whisenant.