By Barry H. Hendrix
The Thomasville High School Tigers varsity football team lost 52-34 to the Leroy High School Bears Aug. 22 at D.F. Anderson Field.
“Anytime you have a loss, you can’t afford to waste the opportunity to learn from your mistakes,” said Clint Anderson, THS Head Football Coach. “We saw a lot of things we need to improve on. …There were some positives, but it is kind of hard to see the positives with an outcome that is not favorable.
“We did some good things offensively, and at times, I thought we made some good plays on defense. Overall, we didn’t tackle very well over the course of the night.
“We learned a lot about personnel in certain positions - that we’re either going to get a lot better at, or we’re going to have to make some changes. Those things, only when you are exposed, do they come to light. It’s early in the year. We know we are young.
“On a positive note, we had over 350 yards in offense,” the coach said. “We had 308 yards rushing. We had one turnover, which ended up costing us. Other than that, I thought Christian Draper ran the offense pretty well with some really good throws – early in the game especially. I thought we got production out of our running backs. We still see some things there where there is a lot of room for improvement as well.
“The first drive we had was more in line with what I expect our offense to be like,” Anderson said. “…That was a classic Wing-T drive. …Ideally, what we want to do is control the clock and run the football. Throw as the opportunity presents itself.
”…The effort was there. We played hard. We just made too many mistakes.”
Thomasville scored first with a 9-yard touchdown pass from Christian Draper to Mychal Brothers (4:10 in the first quarter). The point-after kick by C.J. Welch was good.
(There was a 40-minute weather delay in the first quarter.)
Leroy scored with a 60-yard pass from Sawyer Sullivan to Ayden Tolbert (3:36 in the first). The point-after kick by Gabriel Posey was blocked by Thomasville’s Briley Champion.
The Bears scored again with a 5-yard TD run by Keegan Giles (8:47 in the second). The 2-point conversion was no good, and Leroy led 12-7.
Thomasville’s Troy Davis ran 72 yards for a TD (8:25 in the second). The Point-after kick was also good.
Sullivan passed to Tolbert 40 yards for another Leroy TD (7:12 in the second). The 2-point conversion by Ja’Kavien Collins was also good, and the Bears led 20-14.
An 82-yard TD pass from Sullivan to Josh Reed scored another Leroy TD (5:31 in the second). The 2-point conversion by Collins was also good.
Thomasville’s Jakaden Grayson scored with a 49-yard TD run (3:58 in the second). The 2-point conversion by Hunter Norwood was also good.
The halftime score was Leroy 28-THS 22.
Leroy’s Collins scored on a 2-yard TD run (7:09 in the third quarter). A 2-point conversion pass from Sullivan to Braxton Roberts was also successful. The Bears led 36-22.
Leroy recovered a fumble on the Tiger 48-yard line (5:31 in the third). They would move the ball to the Thomasville 12-yard line, and Giles scored for the Bears (2:42 in the third). A 2-point conversion pass from Sullivan to Tolbert was also good. Leroy led 44-22.
Draper scored for THS from the Leroy 4-yard line (11:25 in the fourth). The 2-point conversion was no good. Leroy led 44-28.
Leroy’s Collins scored on a 2-yard TD run (6:15 in the fourth). Collins also scored on the 2-point conversion.
Thomasville’s C.J. Rowden added a 35-yard TD run (1:31 in the game). The point-after kick was no good.
NOTE - DATE CHANGE: The Thomasville High School Tigers varsity football team (0-1) will travel for a 7 p.m. game on Thursday, Aug. 28 at Sweet Water High School.
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