For the third straight week in a row, the T.R. Miller Tigers held on for a big region win as they edged out the Trinity Wildcats 14-7 Friday night in Brewton to improve to 6-2 overall and to 5-1 in region play.
Two weeks ago, T.R. Miller edged out Clarke County 14-6 for a big, region homecoming win. Last week on the road, the Tigers edged out Washington County 21-16.
On Friday night, all the scoring was done in the first half as T.R. Miller scored on their first offensive possession to take a 7-0 lead with 5:13 left in the first quarter. T.R. Miller went on top 14-0 in the second quarter with 11:51 left in the half before the Wildcats took over after a Tiger fumble to score with 8:15 left before the half and cut the lead to 14-7.
The 14-7 Tiger lead at the half held true as T.R. Miller picked up their third straight win.
“We are very pleased to beat Trinity,” T.R. Miller Tiger head coach Jamie Riggs said. “We lost to them twice last year, and they are a tough group. They have three or four players that have just played terrific; they are just outstanding. We have played them three times now and have had great difficulty with them. They are great players. But they have a great team and anytime you can beat them, I think we accomplished something. I am just proud of our bunch the last three weeks. Nothing has come easy, but we just hang in there and keep fighting. We need to try and finish this thing off. It is going to be difficult to do it, but I appreciate all the crowd tonight and everyone who was cheering us on. That helped us win the game.”
The Trinity players Riggs alluded to were quarterback Walker Van Hooser, receiver Mark White and kicker Andy Pappanastos.
The Tigers held Van Hooser to 94 yards on 12 carries and caused him to miss the whole second half due to injury.
White had seven catches for 50 yards and Pappanastos missed a 44-yard field goal before the half and a 58-yard field goal later in the game.
Tiger defensive coordinator Chris Baxter, whose squad allowed only seven points and 208 total yards to the Wildcats (124 rushing and 84 passing), said the win was a total team effort.
“The best part about this is we practiced all week for the speed up, the spread and defending it and we did some good things,” Baxter said. “They ran the ball a little bit on us early, but we kept battling. We knew that if we didnít give up any big plays, we were going to be fine. We knew the were get yardage and we knew they were going to throw the ball to Mark White, their big receiver. Holding them to attempt a long field goal was big as they have the best kicker in the state of Alabama. These guys are great. We are just going to keep playing.”
Riggs echoed Baxter.
“We have worked very hard at getting better on defense and it takes the desire of coaches and the players and hours to put it together,” he said. “But we have done some things better and I am just proud of all of them. It is difficult at times when you have a game like you did against Andalusia and we don’t really stop anybody and it hurt our feelings and we wanted to do something about it.”
Riggs said when Trinity lost Van Hooser, it changed their offense.
“The other kid that played quarterback came in and he had been playing some and we knew he had played some,” Riggs said. “He is not the runner that Van Hooser is, but he is a good thrower and it changed the way that they ran their offense some. It changed some of the plays they ran, but we were expecting him to play some in the game.”
T.R. Miller racked up 369 yards of offense with 280 on the ground and 89 in the air.
Eight Tigers ran the ball with Darrion Salter leading the way with 14 carries for 74 yards. Kameron Coleman had 14 carries for 70 yards and one touchdown. Dominique Jackson had nine carries for 66 yards.
Kevin Davis was 5-for-11 passing with 89 yards and one touchdown. Kameron Winn had two catches for 42 yards and one touchdown.
Riggs said the tough four-week stretch for his team—a stretch that saw his team go 3-1 that started with a 35-10 loss to Andalusia in week five before getting regions wins in weeks six, seven, and eight—was big.
“Well after losing to Andalusia, that is as good as we could do and I am proud of that,” Riggs said. “We have a big region game left to play next week and the biggest game of all left so we need to get our act together.”
T.R. Miller will travel to take on Montgomery Catholic next week. Game time is set for 7 p.m.