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THS defense shuts down Cleburne
The Thomasville Tigers traveled to Heflin this past Friday, November 17 and defeated the Cleburne County Tigers 29-7 in the second round of the AHSAA State Playoffs. This year's win marks the third straight year Thomasville has eliminated the team from Heflin from the playoffs. In the win the Thomasville defense held the homestanding Tigers to 76 total yards of offense, picked up one touchdown on an interception, and caught the quarterback in the end zone for a safety. They also set the offense up for another touchdown when they intercepted a second pass. While the defense was doing their part, the offense used a solid ground game to pile up 228 yards rushing and score 21 points to go along with the nine points the opportunistic defense tallied. "We had great team effort Friday night," Thomasville Coach Jack Hankins said. "We played with a lot of energy and were aggressive throughout the game. We played like a team that had been there before."
Taking over after the punt at their 18 Thomasville then reeled off three first downs before turning the ball over on downs at the Cleburne County 21. That set the stage for the defense to set the tone for the rest of the game. Two plays into Cleburne County's second offensive series Thomasville linebacker Katrell Watters intercepted what was to be a screen pass and returned it 17 yards for a Thomasville touchdown. Henrique Aguiar's extra-point attempt was no good but Thomasville led 6-0 with 1:32 to play in the first quarter.
As one of the consequences of the safety Cleburne County was forced to give the ball back to Thomasville on a free kick. Delvonte Harris returned the kick to the Cleburne County 37-yard line putting Thomasville back in business in great field position. From there Thomasville was able to drive it in with James White plunging in from one yard out for the score. Agniar split the up rights this time and Thomasville led 15-0 with 5:11 to play in the second quarter. Cleburne County got on the scoreboard late in the quarter when they picked up a Thomasville fumble and ran it in from 25 yards out. The extra-point was good and the Thomasville lead had been cut to 15-7 with 2:09 to play before intermission.
To begin the second half Cleburne County tried to use a squib kick but the strategy backfired when front lineman Joey Kidd pounced on the ball at the Thomasville 49-yard line. Beginning with excellent field position again, the Thomasville offense methodically drove the ball to the one-yard line where quarterback Jake Overstreet dove in for the touchdown with 7:47 left in the third quarter. Aguiar's extra-point was good and Thomasville had extended the lead to 22-7. It was time for the Thomasville defense, which had been playing lights out all night, to step up big again on Cleburne County's next offensive possession. Reacting to a tipped ball in the secondary Thomasville defensive back Tysean Thompson grabbed the floating pass near midfield and raced to the Cleburne County seven yard line. From there Thomasville wasted little time capitalizing on the turnover when Alex Buford darted in from the seven on Thomasville's first snap. Aguiar added his third extra-point and Thomasville led 29-7 with 6:35 left in the third quarter. With Thomasville's defense continuing their dominance and the Thomasville offense content stay on the ground and eat up time off the clock, ended up being the final points of the game. Leading the Thomasville offense on the ground was Alex Buford with 71 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries. Following him was Jake Overstreet with 45 yards and one touchdown on 12 carries; Delvonte Harris with 37 yards on 11 carries; Mitchell Cowan with 31 yards on five carries; and James White with 21 yards and one touchdown on eight carries. In the air Jake Overstreet was 4 for 11 for 28 yards. On the receiving end of Overstreet's passes were; Alex Buford with two catches for 17 yards and Tysean Thompson with two catches for 11 yards. On defense Katrell Watters led Thomasville with 12 tackles followed by Jake Overstreet, Shed Simmons and James White with 5. Jeremy Borden and James White both had sacks in the game while Tysean Thompson and Katrell Watters each had an interception with Watters turning his into a touchdown. On the agenda next for Thomasville will be a visit from the Trinity Wildcats in the quarter finals of the AHSAA playoffs. The Wildcats who defeated W. S. Neal 24-14 last week are the Region 2 Champions and will be entering this week's game with an 10-2 record. "We will be facing a typical well disciplined and fundamentally sound Trinity football team this week," Coach Jack Hankins said. "They have a very good spread offense filled with dangerous play makers and they will be very aggressive on defense. We will need to play mistake free to win." The game between Thomasville and Trinity is set for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Friday, November 24 at D. F. Anderson Field.
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