Bobcats too tough for Tigers

The Giles County Bobcats showed why they are the top-ranked team in Class 4-A Friday night, pummeling the Marshall County Tigers 45-14 in front of a packed house at Sam Davis Park in Pulaski.

MCHS (1-3) scored on their first drive of the ballgame before Giles County (5-0) put up 39 unanswered points to run away with the win.

The Tigers were in the game early, trailing 17-7 at the half before the Bobcats' domination took hold as the Tigers found themselves on the short end of 28-7 second half.

"It was a hard fought game in the first half, but in the second half, they came out and made plays and we didn't," said MCHS head coach Aaron Pitts. "We just have to keep working and keep plugging and hopefully we can put two halves together and come out with a better outcome."

The Bobcats were without the services of head coach David O'Connor, who is serving a two-game suspension for recruiting violations, but it did not matter, as Giles County seemed to use O'Connor's absence as a motivation to remain undefeated.

"They have a great team over there and do a great job of coaching," said Pitts. "Their guys believe and that is half the battle. Right now we have to get our guys believing, some do, but not a hundred percent, but we'll get there."

Giles County hit their season scoring average on the nose in the contest with senior quarterback Al Cobb leading the way, rushing for 147 yards on 21 carries and 4 touchdowns, while throwing for 153 yards and one score.

Tailback Nieco Walker (90 yards on 7 carries) accounted for the Bobcats' other two touchdowns with one rushing TD and one scoring reception from Cobb.

Dee Dee Coffey also had a big game for the Bobcats, as he was the workhorse for Giles County with 103 yards on 16 carries out of the backfield.

Kenton Baker was Cobb's primary target at wide receiver, catching six passes for 69 yards.

Kevin Peterson gained 80 yards on three carries on the opening scoring drive for Marshall County before the Bobcats' defense zeroed in on the Tiger senior, holding him to just two yards on 14 carries the remainder of the game.

Austin Stacey scored a touchdown from one yard out with 6:14 remaining in the game to make it 39-14, but was held to minus 6 yards on nine touches in the contest and was sacked five times.

Stacey completed just five passes on nine attempts in the game with Malik Crawford catching two Stacey passes for 21 yards, Chris Walker had one catch for nine yards, Peterson caught one ball for 7 yards, and Payne Smith made one catch for 21 yards.

The Tigers and the Bobcats have met 51 times over the years, and incredibly, the series is now deadlocked at 25-25-1.

"I thought this was going to be the game where something was going to break for us," said Pitts. "We had some adversity and we have to learn to fight back from it and we will do a better job of that in our next game."

The Tigers have a chance to get back into the 12-AA race as they entertain winless Spring Hill (0-4) next Friday at Preston Hopkins Field in Lewisburg.