| Those young Fighting Tigers are beginning to show a little age. Friday night they showed a few wrinkles. A couple of new plays, an awesome ground attack and a deadly passing game sparked Ironton to a 35-0 shutout win over SEOAL foe Athens at Tanks Memorial Stadium. Again, senior fullback Tim Hodges was in the spotlight although he had to share it with several other teammates. Hodges rambled for 161 yards and passed 63 yards to Jimmy Morris as he and Morris scored 2 touchdowns. Morris also caught a conversion pass and kicked 2 extra points. Ironton moved the ball down the field after taking the kickoff only to come up less than a foot shy of a first down at the 6 yard line. Athens took over but was forced to punt. The tigers fumbled the punt and Athens took over again. But the Tigers defense held again and Athens backed the Tigers into a corner with a punt that rolled dead at the 4 yard line. Thanks largely to a 55 yard gallop by Tim Hodges, the Tigers moved to the Athens 25 yard line. Morris and Terry Royal carried to give Ironton a first down at the 11 yard line. Hodges then ran 9 yards and then the final 2 as Ironton took the lead at the 2:09 mark. The extra point attempt failed and it was 6-0. Ironton kept calling Hodges' number and the workhorse of the backfield continued to respond as Ironton moved to the 2 yard line once more. Hodges did an instant replay of his first score and Royal passed to Morris on the conversion for a 14-0 lead with 10:10 left in the half.. Ironton had moved the ball by sending Hodges off tackle and occasionally a sweep with the fullback, a play just put in the past week. The new wrinkle also led to another new wrinkle and a score. Hodges took a pitchout late in the half and ran to his right, stopped and threw a perfect strike to Morris who shed a tackler and romped 63 yards in all for the score. Joe Fletcher kicked the extra point and it was 21-0 at the intermission. "We just put the sweep in with the fullback this week," explained Lutz. "Mike Burcham stuck the pass in off of it." Athens figured if they stopped Hodges they could stop Ironton, Right? Wrong! With Athens jamming things up front and holding Hodges to just 6 yards, quarterback Brent Wilcoxen went to work. The junior signal caller connected on 6of 6 attempts in the 2nd half {he was 1 of 1 in the first half for 9 yards} for 130 yards including a 24 yard scoring strike to senior end Tink Williams midway through the 3rd period. As is the case, Lutz was just taking what the defense was giving him. "They started flying in there with their safeties and cornerbacks and jamming things up," said Lutz. "So we just started throwing the ball." The final Ironton score came with 3:14 left to play as most of the 2nd unit was in. But it was Morris who ran it in from 20 yards out on a reverse as he went untouched into the endzone. He also kicked the point after due to a shoulder injury to Fletcher in the 3rd period. The Tigers also suffered another injury, this one to Royal, who sustained a neck injury. Middle guard and reserve fullback Brian Carter was also injured and left the game after making two fine runs. Athens posed only one serious scoring threat late in the first half. After recovering an Ironton fumble at the 27 yard line, the Bulldogs moved the ball to the 10 yard line. But an interception by junior Steve Sutton at the 5 yard line, halted the drive. Overall, Lutz feels his squad is beginning to come around. "We're playing together. Scott Willis is getting some playing time, David Clay is getting some playing time, so are Wilcoxen and several of the others." Looking at Wilcoxen's passing performance, Lutz said "I'm impressed. He's setting up, turning and throwing the ball." Besides Hodges, Royal added 58 yards on 11 carries and Morris had 50 yards on 8 carries. |
| Fighting Tigers Roll Past Athens by Jimmy Walker Ironton Tribune |
| Tim Hodges: My pass to Jimmy Morris for the touchdown was not a perfect strike. It was by far the worst pass I had ever thrown. Jimmy had just enough talent to catch it, and a whole lot of speed to take it to the endzone.My 55 yard run would have been a lot nicer if I had not been caught from behind by Athen's smallest player on the field. |