Tigers down Eustace, 27-7 for Bi-District title

By Nick Counts

The Daingerfield Tigers had an excellent plan for this season heading into the playoffs. With the bye week for the Tigers coming on the last week of the season, they would get extra rest and time for their players to be back at full playing health before taking the road back towards state.
There were, however, two things in their plan that didn’t come to light until they took the field in Van on Saturday afternoon. First, the Tigers didn’t know the fact that they had built up a bit of rust after that week off and second the fact that the Eustice Bulldogs were going to come in fired up to play against Big Blue.
The Bulldogs had one plan, keep the ball out of the hands of the potent Daingerfield offense – and it worked for the first half of play.
After the two squads traded a few punts, with Eustice dominating the time of possession, the Tigers would finally get on the board first in the second quarter.
The Tigers would take over the ball of the 50 yard line after a Bulldog fumble that was recovered by Dominik Allen.
Cordarius Anderson took the first play from scrimmage and moved the squad five yards closer to the goal line after a short run.
This run was all the Calvin Bryant needed. On the next play, Bryant took the handoff and strode 45 yards into the endzone for the Tigers first touchdown of the afternoon. With a good point after from Keynon Whetstone, the Tigers were up 7-0 with around nine minutes left to go in the half.
The Eustice squad took over after the kickoff on their 37 yard line and used a solid running attack to their advantage. They picked their way down the field to get within scoring range with 40 seconds left to go in the half.
Despite running the ball with effectiveness, the Bulldog coaches dialed up their first pass of the day. Big mistake against this Daingerfield defense – the ball was picked off by Spencer Alexander who ran around a few Bulldogs then outrun all the rest on his way to a 96 yard touchdown return.
This time the PAT was missed and the Tigers went into the half with a 13-0 lead, but not before the second pass attempt on the day from Eustice was picked off byCedarion Hopkins.
Second half adjustments come in key at this point. The Daingerfield offense which had struggled for the most part picked up their pace in the half moving the ball with a lot of speed.
Anderson broke free with a 15 yard gain on the drive and Keaton Key picked up a few yards on a pass play on the opening plays of the drive.
Bryant came up big during this drive, for his second huge play of the game – this time a 44 yard pass reception to put the Tigers on the one yard line. The pass was bobbled and bounced off his shoulder pad, however, Bryant was able to pull the ball down and get the Tigers within sniffing distance of another touchdown.
That touchdown was picked up by Anderson on the very next play with a one yard run. The score was now 20-0 after the point after was good.
Eustice would put their only points on the board during their next drive which consisted of all running plays and chewed up nearly ten minutes from the clock.
The Tigers would in the fourth quarter again as they turned up the offensive intensity during a drive with just under seven left to go.
Keris Alexander would take the rushing on his back using option plays to his advantage. Alexander would pick up two first downs on runs 13 and 21 yards respectively then have another nice gain of seven on a run to get the Tigers within scoring range.
Key would put the cap on the drive with a three yard touchdown run off of a reverse play.
 

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