Turn out the lights ....

Tucker ends Cats’ season

By Marty Kirkland

Dalton’s offense got to show off its big-play potential one last time Friday night.

By making even more big plays than the Catamounts, the Tucker Tigers showed why they’re going to get another chance to prove what their offense can do.

Dalton outgained the Tigers in total offense, but struggled to finish off drives with points, while the Tigers made sure their big plays came at the right time in a 35-13 win at Harmon Field in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs.

“We moved the ball real well from 20 to 20, but we struggled in the red zone,” said coach Adam Winegarden, whose Cats had 389 offensive yards to Tucker’s 349. “We had the ball down there four or five times and didn’t come up with anything. You can’t do that against a good team and Tucker’s a good football team.”

Region 6 No. 3 seed Tucker (9-2) — ranked 10th in Class 4A in the final regular season Associated Press poll and the defending state champ — advances to play at Sandy Creek, a 37-19 winner over Loganville on Friday, in next week’s second round.

The Tigers quieted the home crowd quickly Friday as Devin Scott returned the opening kickoff 78 yards to Dalton’s 15-yard line and Tyrelle Poole scored on a 2-yard touchdown run three plays later, giving Tucker a 7-0 lead a little more than a minute into the first quarter.

But the Cats (7-4), the No. 2 seed from Region 7, gave their fans reason to cheer on their first possession as quarterback Stryker Brown lateraled to wide receiver Tevin Collins, who passed to fullback Shaquon Moore, all by himself downfield, for a 66-yard pickup that set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Tre Beck three plays later.

After the game, Winegarden said that was going to be the first play called all week long, but its success was timely as the Cats put themselves right back on equal footing with the Tigers. They had tried the same play on a few occasions this season, but this attempt netted the best result by far.

“We had to come out with something, big guns, to try to get the momentum back,” Collins said. “We did that. I feel like everybody played hard tonight.”

But while the Tigers scored on two of their next three possessions — Scott, who finished with 91 yards on 12 carries, had touchdown runs of 2 and 11 yards — to post a 21-7 lead they’d take into halftime, the Cats found themselves cooling the deeper they moved into Tucker territory.

After scoring on its opening drive, Dalton went three-and-out, saw Jose Garcia hook a 37-yard field goal attempt wide left, turned the ball over on downs at the Tucker 19 and turned the ball over on downs at the Tucker 32. Moore was stopped for no gain on a run up the middle on fourth-and-one at the 19, while Brown had no chance to get off a pass when he was sacked for an 8-yard loss by a swarm of Tucker defenders at the 32.

“We did what we wanted to on offense, but we just fell apart towards the goal line. We didn’t have what it took to get it in,” said Brown, whose 117 rushing yards made up a big chunk of Dalton’s offense Friday, along with a 98-yard effort on the ground by Moore.

Tucker coach Franklin Stephens thought his defense’s wall-like response in those situations — they also limited 1,000-yard rusher Beck to 5 yards on six carries — might have been more about tenacity than technique.

“Dalton has a great offense,” Stephens said. “ ... I think we played hard. Sometimes that’s the best adjustment — play hard and take care of your assignment.”

The Tigers didn’t have many possessions without a spark, either.

Scott’s second touchdown run was part of a two-play drive set up by a 69-yard run from Rendell Wilder, who finished with a team-best 98 yards on 11 carries, and Tucker’s first possession of the third quarter — which came after Dalton moved the ball to the Tucker 18, but lost ground on a delay of game penalty and had incomplete passes on third and fourth down — started with a 39-yard run by Scott. He finished it with a 1-yard touchdown run for a 28-7 lead with 1:37 to play in the third quarter.

But Tucker’s ability to keep moving on offense wasn’t about any single player. Five backs had at least four carries and 21 yards, with junior quarterback Norman Hayes managing his team’s wing-T attack well and chipping in a couple big plays of his own — he scrambled for a crucial first down on the drive that netted Scott’s third touchdown and found Chris Sanders on a 48-yard catch to set up the Tigers’ final score, a 4-yard run by Wilder with 4:06 to play.

“It’s really nice to have an offense like this,” Hayes said. “We know we can go to anyone and count on everybody.”

The Cats, who won the Sub-region 7A-4A title this year and claimed a 50th consecutive winning season, closed to 28-13 on Brown’s 1-yard touchdown run with 8:28 to play, but couldn’t recover the onside kickoff that followed and trailed by three scores when they got the ball for the final time with 3:59 on the clock.

TIGERS 35, CATAMOUNTS 13

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Tucker 14 7 7 7 — 35

Dalton 7 0 0 6 — 13

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

TUC — Poole 2 run (Miguel Cruz kick), 10:45

DAL — Beck 3 run (Jose Garcia kick), 8:51

TUC — Devin Scott 2 run (Cruz kick), 5:11

Second Quarter

TUC — Scott 11 run (Cruz kick), 11:07

Third Quarter

TUC — Scott 1 run (Cruz kick), 1:37

Fourth Quarter

DAL — Stryker Brown 1 run (Garcia kick), 8:28

TUC — Rendell Wilder 4 run (Cruz kick), 4:06

YARDSTICK

TUC DAL

First Downs 13 15

Rushes-Yds. 46-297 42-220

Passing Yds. 52 169

Com.-Att.-Int. 2-4-0 8-23-0

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-0

Punts-Avg. 2-35.5 1-32

Penalties-Yds. 5-25 8-40

Turnovers 0 0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Tucker: Rendell Wilder 11-98, Devin Scott 12-91, Norman Hayes 7-47, N’Quan Maggett 8-44, Tyrelle Poole 4-21, Team 4-minus 4; Dalton: Stryker Brown 15-117, Shaquon Moore 21-98, Tre Beck 6-5.

PASSING — Tucker: Hayes 2-4-0-52; Dalton: Brown 6-20-0-78, Tevin Collins 2-2-0-91.

RECEIVING — Tucker: Chris Sanders 1-48, Seantavius Jackson 1-4; Dalton: Chas Thomason 5-69, Moore 1-66, Brown 1-25, Collins 1-9.