| If you find a good horse, you ride him. Tim Hodges must feel like Secretariat. The senior Ironton Tiger fullback lugged the football 28 times Friday night at Waverly for 173 yards and scored all three of Ironton's touchdowns in a 22-8 come-from-behind SEOAL win over the Waverly Tigers. "That first drive we went off tackle and went right on in for the score," explained Ironton Coach Bob Lutz. "Then we tried to do some things we thought we could run. But we went back to the off tackle plays the second half and shoved it down their throats." Hodges capped the first drive with a 3 yard run over his right tackle. Joe Fletcher kicked the point after and it was 7-0 at the 5:33 mark. The 47 yard, eleven play drive came all on the ground mostly behind the running of Hodges and Terry Royal. Waverly tinkered with the thought of an upset on their first possession of the second period. On their fifth play, a 2nd and 7, halfback Rick Conley slipped through the Tiger defensive line and outraced the secondary 67 yards for the touchdown. Quarterback Onno Steger then passed to Conley for the conversion and at the 8:45 mark, Waverly actually led Ironton. But the score was no indication of the domination that Ironton enjoyed. Although Waverly had yards rushing for the first half, 67 came on one play. Ironton had 97 yards rushing and 85 passing. The I-Tigers should have had another score before the half as quarterback Brent Wilcoxen passed the Tigers down the field. Wilcoxen hit Fletcher with a 31 yard pass with 15 seconds left, then connected with Royal for 6 more with 7 seconds left. Wilcoxen then hit Fletcher again and the big Ironton receiver barrelled into the endzone, falling over a Waverly defender. But the officials ruled Fletcher a yard short despite protest from the Ironton staff. "We should have had that one right before the half. He was easily in. No question. He {Fletcher} was over by this much," said Lutz, holding his hands about a yard apart. But there was no crying over spilt milk as Ironton came out roaring in the second half. Hodges began running wild, carrying the ball 5 of 6 plays with only Royal getting one chance for 12 yards. Hodges ended the 63 yard drive with a 12 yard burst of his own with 9:46 showing on the clock to put the I-Tigers back on top for keeps. Hodges got the call again on the conversion and it was 15-8. The Ironton defense continued to shut off the Waverly attack, permitting their host only one first down in the 3rd period after giving them only 2 in the first half. Conley, who finished with 100 yards rushing in 11 tries, was held to 17 yards the second half. "Steve Sutton and Darwin Conwell did a good job containing Conley," praised Lutz. "Conley is quick and Conwell had to make the stop on him several times. One little move and he's {Conley} gone." Ironton's final drive was a 76 yard march that started at the end of the 3rd period and continued almost four more minutes into the 4th period. Hodges carried 11 of the 15 plays, including the final 8 plays. He ended the drive by going 4 yards over the right side behind Conwell, Fletcher and Brian Jenkins for the score. Fletcher again added the point after. "He ran hard, very hard," Lutz said of Hodges. Despite the awesome ground game that piled up 285 yards, Ironton was very effective through the air. Wilcoxen connected on 5-6 attempts for 85 yards. Fletcher snared 3 for 63 yards while Royal hauled in the other 2 for 22 yards. "He {Wilcoxen} did a good job," lauded Lutz. "He threw a good ball. And there were a couple of times when his receivers were covered and the rush was beating down on him that he tucked it away. That was the thing for him to do in that situation. |
| Fighting Tigers Pound Waverly by Jimmy Walker Ironton Tribune |
| Tim Hodges: I finally started running like an Ironton Tiger fullback should. Fletch was robbed of a touchdown on the last play of the first half. That really fueled the fire for the second half. |