ORLANDO — In a match-up of the same animal but different breeds, the one-loss Trenton Tigers played the undefeated Blountstown Tigers. At stake was the claim to be the 2013 1A champion.
By the stroke of 0:00 on the game clock, Trenton (12-1) topped Blountstown (13-1) 14-0.
“We knew what we were capable of and we did it. They were bigger than us and everybody was on their bandwagon, but we came to play. It’s a good feeling to make history in the right way,” said Andrew Thomas, Trenton head coach.
In the first quarter, both teams came out with jitters early committing multiple penalties, not covering key downs and turning the ball over. Trenton lost two fumbles while the Blountstown offense managed to go 0 of 5 on third downs in the opening quarter.
Despite the turnovers, Trenton found a way to draw blood first. Stephen Smith, the Trenton’s senior quarterback, completed only one pass in the quarter, but the lone pass got his team on the board. He found Hamp Cheevers streaking down field past defenders for a 54 yard score late in the quarter.
Trenton went on to close the quarter holding the Blountstown offense to negative yardage … -4 yards overall.
The second quarter for both teams was about defense in their own right. Trenton’s offense managed to get another deep ball to Cheevers but he was stripped of the ball. Blountstown would recover.
But even with the recovery, the offense still was held without scoring. The Blountstown offense only tallied a total of 54 yards in the first half while Trenton had over 125 yards total. A key stat in the first half was the ability for the Blountstown punter, Hunter Jordan to flip the field. He had 199 punt yards at the close of the half.
Coming out of the half, the Trenton Tigers received and stuck with the trend of running the ball, with some play action sprinkled in. Nothing resulted of the drive as they went three-and-out, punting the ball to the other Tigers. Trenton finished the night with 31 rushes for 89 yards overall.
Blountstown turned around and got the ball just to give it away again. Jordan was intercepted by Micheal Smith who returned the catch for a touchdown. Trenton went up 14-0 with 6:21 left in the third quarter. Jordan was replaced numerous of times for back up Dylan Lee. Lee passed for 60 yards on the night.
Nothing resulted of the fourth quarter except penalties for Blountstown. They committed 14 on the night for 136 yards. Blountstown finished the night with only 6 more yards of offense than penalty yards.
“We shot ourselves in the foot all night. Congrats to the Trenton Tigers, but I still believe my guys had a better game in them,” said Greg Jordan, head coach of Blountstown.
Along with the penalty yards the lack of a run game stymied Blountstown’s chances at winning the the state title.
So, for the first time in school history the Trenton Tigers become state champions of class 1A in 2013.
