| Okay sis, pucker up. We all know what a tie is like and the Ironton Tigers are feeling it after playing Washington Court House to a 13-13 deadlock Friday night at Washington C.H. The Tigers did themselves in with penalties and near misses, but Tiger Coach Bob Lutz was pointing the finger at himself. Ironton had a 4th and 2 at the 24-yard line of C.H. with 1:30 left in the game. A delay of game penalty cost the Tigers dearly. "We were going on the second count and didn't get it off" Lutz sighed. "I tried to call for a timeout cut couldn't get it. I'll take the blame for that one." "we had our chance to beat them and didn't," Lutz added. "And the penalties really hurt us." The Tigers recovered a Blue Lion fumble on a muffed punt at the 41 yard line with 1:35 left in the first period. Ironton then scored on a short drive. A very short drive. Like a one play drive. Junior scatback Terry royal slipped through a hole in the Ironton line and danced his way into the endzone for a 59 yard jaunt. Joe Fletcher kicked the point after. "It was a counter," explained Lutz. We got into the trap and got him {Royal} into the secondary and he made a nice move. But our problem for the game was getting somebody into the secondary." Sophomore quarterback Jon Thomas was the main offensive weapon for the Blue Lions. On their next possession, he passed 14,19,7 and 17 yards, the final toss good for a touchdown to Brian Dodd. Dodd also kicked the point after to tie the score with 11:24 left in the first half. Thomas finished the game woth 13 of 19 passes for 156 yards and two interceptions. An Ironton fumble gave the Blue Lions good field position at the Tiger 46, but Royal intercepted Thomas in the endzone to halt the Court House drive. Ironton recovered another misplayed punt by the Lions at the C.H. 43-yard line. Brent Wilcoxen passed 15 and 25 yards to Fletcher sandwiched around a short run by Tim Hodges to put the ball on the one yard line. Wilcoxen pushed it in from there on a quarterback sneak. The point after was wide right and the score stood 13-7 at the intermission. The Tiger defense, which yielded 150 yards the first half, refused to budge in the second half, allowing only 3 yards passing the 3rd period and sacking the quarterback for losses totalling 36 yards. "We were just missing him {Jon Thomas} in the first half" Lutz said of his defense. "We were in the slants and he was hitting quick outs or dumping the ball off over the middle. And our ends got knocked down a couple of times. We didn't react the first half, but I thought we did real well the second half." So if the defense played so well, how did C.H. score? Well, it so happens Dodd picked off a Tiger pass just as Ironton was getting a good drive together and returned it 60 yards for the score. The point after attempt failed when the ball was snapped over the holder's head. Lutz defended his quarterback saying, "He played very well and threw the ball good. They had a rush on him and the guy was just sitting there waiting on him." Tink Williams picked off a Thomas pass as the 3rd period ended to give Ironton a first down on the Lions 36. But the ensuing Tiger down produced a 13 yard gain but resulted in a fumble and a Court House recovery. Ironton had a final chance when they recovered their third Blue Lion fumble as Scott Willis pounced on the ball at the C.H. 33 yard line. Three plays netted 8 yards before the ill-fated fourth down penalty. With a fourth and seven, a halfback pass from Royal to Steve Sutton fell just a few yards beyond Sutton's grasp. With the aid of some Ironton penalties, Court House moved the ball to the Tiger 29 yard line. There they tried a 45 yard field goal attempt with 7 seconds remaining in the game but the kick was well short of its anticipated destiny. Royal led all rushers with 93 yards on 10 carries. Morris was next with 48 yards on 7 carries. Morris was filling in for the injured Gabriel Lewis who has a bad ankle. "He ran real well," Lutz said of Morris. He ran aggressively |
| Fighting Tigers Tie with Blue Lions by Jimmy Walker Ironton Tribune |
| Tim Hodges: No question this game was the lowest of the low. The only two good things about it were that we didn't lose, and we felt so bad with a tie, we certainly did not want to know what it felt like to lose. |