The first day of October brings with it leaves falling from the trees, cooler temperatures and in this neck of the woods storms from the coast. In Randleman on Friday night, the Tigers ran into a different type of storm as they encountered the Storm of Southern Guilford High School and found out early in the game that this storm was just as potent.
| Tigers taking the field against the Storm |
The Tigers came into the game with emotions high and their mental focus locked after a rousing pre-gam speech from Head Coach Shane Handy. As they received the ball and set up the offense they were ready to play their style of smash mouth football. They showed THAT on the second play of the game as RB T.J. Simmons ripped off a long gainer to the 12 yard line and the Tigers looked to be in business. The drive stalled in the red zone but the offense was still able to produce a field goal and take an early 3-0 lead.
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| Tiger RB T.J. Simmons breaks downfield |
As the Storm took the field after the kickoff they went to work only to have their first air package picked off by the Tiger defense at the 15 yard line. Tigers back in business!! But with what has been the issue with the Tiger offense, when they struggle it’s because they turn the ball over and the turnover bug came back to visit again as QB Kyle Farlow turned the ball over with an interception on the very next play. Drive over and the defense came back out to take the field as the Storm took over at the 47 yard line. The Storm offense came back on the field and this drive showed why they are such a strong team. Junior QB Jamie Cunningham took his offense right down the field and capped the drive off with a touch down pass to Austen Thompson to take an early 7-3 lead over the Tigers. After a quick three and out the Tigers kicked the ball off and Southern Guilford sent its offense back onto the field. The Tiger defense stood tall and busted thru the line for a sack of the statuesque Cunningham for an 11 yard loss to bring up second and twenty-one. Second down and the Storm collected themselves and connected on a deep pass to midfield. Not resting on the last few good gains the Storm notices a chink in the Tiger defense and start to toss the ball around as Cunningham carves up the defense en route to a touch down pass to Matt Colvin to stretch the lead to 14-3 late in the first quarter.
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| T.J. Simmons gets loose again for a score |
As the second quarter begins the Tiger offense has a soul searching meeting before they take the field and come out with passion again and begin their drive with very good results. As soon as the offense looks to have a very nice rhythm going they take to the air and are subsequently picked off as Austen Thompson garners a pick six of Farlow and takes it to the house for a 21-3 lead. Coach Handy collected his entire team together and told them “We are not out of this game! Now lets go out there and make some plays, daggummit!” Heeding the advice of their fiery head coach the Tiger offense took the field and, made the blocks that they needed to for their young RB Simmons as he took the handoff and chugged down the field like a dump truck with concrete in the back. Simmons touchdown run closed the Storm lead to 21-10 with 2:29 remaining in the first half as Randleman showed the partisan crown that they have heart and a heck of a lot of talent to go with it.
Both teams came out and started the third quarter in the same fashion as they did in the first half. Cunningham finally guided his troops to the endzone as he threw a second touchdown pass to Colvin to make the score 28-10 with 5:00 to go in the third quarter. The Tigers seemed not to be able to catch any further rhythm until the fourth quarter when Simmons threw a touchdown pass himself to the back of the end zone to Jeremy Taylor to make the score a little more respectable at 35-17.
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| T.J. Simmons looks to throw |
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| Jeremy Taylor catches the TD pass from T.J. Simmons |
The Tigers fought a valiant battle but in the end they faced a team that used the screen pass just as often and as good as the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Storm ran up alot of offense en route to a final score of 42-17 as they raised their record to 4-2. The Tigers evened their record at 3-3 with the loss and will take their show on the road next week as they face the Trinity Bulldogs (0-6). It should be a game for the Tigers to try and get their offense back on track and maybe catch a rhythm again as the last couple of weeks the offense has really struggled to put points on the board and allow their defense to rest off the field.
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