Randleman High school has a very rich tradition when it comes to all sports but when it comes to football, thats where the rubber hits the road. Randleman fans love football and they love their team in the same manner that Green Bay love their Packers. Homecoming is the time when all alumni come back home and renew adolescent friendships and watch the local team go off and dominate an opponent for old times sakes. In front of a standing room only crowd the Tigers came out and put on a show that filled the appetite for all fans.
As the game began Trinity seemed to have a little trickery up their sleeve as they won the coin toss, and then took the ball for three plays and could make no first down. At that point the Bulldogs sent their punt team on the field and lined up for what seemed like a run of the mill punt. As soon as the ball was hiked the Bulldog offense went to work and faked the punt and picked up the first down. After the brilliant fake punt, Trinity sent it’s offense back out on the field and they promptly turned the ball over and Randleman recovered the ball for their first break of the game at the Trinity 46 yard line.
Now the Tigers have an offense that sometimes shows signs of perfection and then other times it sputters like the motor of a Model-T. Tonight would not be the night that the Model-T showed up. The Tiger offense ran with the precision of a Ferrari Enzo. The first score of the night came off the arm of QB Kyle Farlow as he connected on a touchdown pass at the 7:26 mark to Jeremy Taylor as he took the screen pass and then dove over the defender into the endzone for a dramatic score of 7-0.
Now right after that score the Tigers attempted the unexpected onside kick which was recovered by Nick Cooper. As Cooper recovered the ball he lost his sense of direction and replicated the perfect Jim Marshall recovery and touchdown run but in the wrong direction. Unlike Marshall though, Cooper recognized his gaffe and headed back in the correct direction only to have the play blown dead from the spot of the recovery.
So, no harm no foul, after one of many sidebars on the night, the officials called the two head coaches to the center of the field and explained their decision to give Trinity the ball at midfield. Unable to move the ball again the Bulldogs handed the ball right back to Randleman. Coach Handy stated that his team “was facing a great team on the other sideline but his team could do some things well also!”
Next drive, the Tigers RB T.J. Simmons took the ball on the sweep to the left side and with his catlike quickness cut it back against the grain and took it all the way down inside the redzone. Tigers are back in business for their second score!! Taylor, showing his hunger for the endzone also tries the left side and ends up inside the five yard as he is pulled down from the back by Nick Stout and the offense is cooking like fish grease. At that point, Farlow noticed something amiss across the line and used his big football IQ to quick snap the ball, hand off to Simmons and watch him try the dive to the right outside, only to have daylight to his left side and cut it back like Barry Sanders, leaving the Trinity defense all with broken ankles en route to his second score of the night and a 14-0 lead for the Tigers with 3:54 remaining in the first quarter.
As the night went on Trinity continued to shoot themselves in the foot with penalty after penalty and it just simply wore the kids eagerness and passion down to the point that you could see their body language change. Not one to be complacent with a two score lead Coach Handy stayed on his team to keep their foot down and keep driving. They did and were able to stop the Bulldogs yet again to get the ball back. After a bad throw by Farlow that missed Simmons on the down and out, Farlow then reloaded on the next play and hit Simmons who once again used his quicks to change direction against the much slower defense of the Bulldogs as he ate up the left side all the way to his second score on the ground to add to the lead and make the score 20-0 with 1:01 left in the first quarter as he scored on pure effort and athleticism.
Trinity put up a gallant effort but they still could not rid themselves of the killer yellow laundry that kept littering the field when they were in possession of the ball. After receiving the ball back with yet another chance to put some points on the board the Bulldogs faltered and punted the ball to Connor Pratt and then tackled the Tiger player out of bounds aggressively. You could tell at that point that they had lost their cool and it spread to Pratt as he jumped up and got into the face of the Bulldog player who found himself on the wrong side of the field where he had no friends. After the fracas ended and both teams were separated, and Coach Handy had a quick “come to Jesus-meeting” with Connor Pratt,
the referees did the smart thing and called both coaches to midfield and laid down the law that this activity would not be tolerated. Once all heads had cooled, Simmons took the ball downfield and put the Tigers in perfect position to add another score. Coach Handy dialed up a beautiful play action play that allowed Farlow to hook up deep with Justin Knox for the score stretching the lead even further at 34-0 with halftime in view. Trinity, also thinking about halftime early watched as their center snapped the ball over the head of QB Kivett enabling Tyler Ransom to scoop up the ball and score the defensive touchdown showing the discipline of the well coached defense. With homecoming festivities in sight the Tiger defense relaxed their guard just a bit and allowed the one and only score of the night by the Bulldogs as they scored in the waining minutes of a weird first half that ended with no working clock and both teams huddled, one on the field and the other on the visitor sideline in a straight line ready to leave the field.
Coach Handy told his team at the half “We have to do things better than perfect in order to finish this team off. Defensively I want you guys to shut them down! DO NOT EXHALE! When we go out there after the half I want you guys to see that scoreboard as reading 0-0, same as when we started.” Being the studious team that they are the Tiger squad responded in the second half as they took their first drive and stuffed it down the throat of the Bulldogs behind second string RB Knox. Knox carried the brunt of the load for the second half and at the 31.5 mark of the third quarter jumped out of the muck and headed downfield doing his best T.J. Simmons impression and was finally pulled down at the 1 inch line. Capping the drive, Knox added the final Tiger score to end the scoring at 48-7 as he finished the drive with the short run to paydirt.
The Tigers showed Friday night what a dominate team that they can be when they execute in five major areas. No penalties, play execution, running the ball effectively, listening to their coaching staff and smelling blood in the water on offense and defense. Putting a team away is a skill in the same manner that catching the ball and blocking is and Randleman showed that when they follow that recipe they cook success on the field. On a night that saw T.J. Simmons score easily and often Tiger fans also saw him named Homecoming King 2010. Congratulations to a great kid and team!!! The Tigers improve their record to 4-3 and will travel next week to Carver (5-2).
