PHOTO BY PERRY WATSON PHOTOGRAPHY James White dives over a W.S. Neal defender while Jay Williams looks for a block Friday night in Brewton. The Thomasville Tigers evened their 2008 season mark at 2 - 2 and improved their region record to 2 - 1 this past Friday, September 19, when they defeated the W. S. Neal Blue Eagles 23 - 14 in a game played in East Brewton. In the process the Tigers, who are playing a lot of young players in key positions, continued to show progress in almost every phase of the game. "I was proud of our effort Friday night," Tiger Head Coach Jack Hankins said. "I thought we played hard and dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Once again our defense was good overall and made some big plays when we had to have them. On offense we did what we had to do to get the job done but still had problem with turnovers. We need to cut out the turnovers particularly those in the red zone."

On offense the Tigers, who compiled 363 yards of total offense, were led in rushing by James White with 106 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries and James Jones with 57 yards and one touchdown on seven carries. In the air Daniel Rogers was 12 for 23 for 161 yards and one touchdown while Alex Buford was 1 for 1 for 25 yards. On the receiving end of the Tiger aerials were: Shaq Jackson with seven catches for 85 yards; Tevin Pope with four catches for 57 yards; Charles Taylor with one catch for 32 yards and a touchdown; and Mitchell Cowan with one catch for 12 yards.

On defense Chris Davis led the charge for the Tigers with nine tackles followed by Javier Russell with seven tackles and James Jones with five. Davis also had three key pass breakups in the game while Jones had an interception.

In the game W. S. Neal won the toss and elected to receive giving them the ball first. They were unable to generate anything on their first possession turning it over to the Tigers. The Tigers did manage to drive deep into Blue Eagle territory on their first possession but were also forced to turn it over on downs.

From there the Eagles launched a drive that eventually stalled at the Thomasville 34. Facing a fourth down and long at that point the W. S. Neal offense lined up to punt. The snap was high however forcing the punter to retreat and recover the ball at the Blue Eagle 43 where the Tigers took over with great field position.

Taking advantage of the mistake, the Tigers drove the ball inside the 10 yard line. They saw their efforts thwarted there however when the W. S. Neal defense fell on a Tiger fumble at the six yard line with 2:11 to play in the first quarter.

It was the Tiger defense' turn at that point to take care of business and they did. Keeping the W. S. Neal offense bottled up deep in their territory they forced a punt that only carried to the Blue Eagle 35.

From there the Tigers were quick to take advantage of the situation when Daniel Rogers hooked up with Charles Taylor on a 33 yard scoring strike. Cameron Dunegan tacked on the extra-point and Thomasville led 7 - 0 with 11:19 to play in the second quarter.

Following a change of possessions between the two teams the Tigers found themselves with good field position again when James Jones intercepted a pass at midfield with 5:51 remaining in the period. Taking advantage of the break and marching right down the field, it looked as though the Thomasville offense had added to their lead when Tevin Pope scampered in from 10 yards out with 3:34 remaining before halftime. The play was negated however by a holding penalty moving the ball back to the 20. A couple of plays later the drive that once had been so promising ran out of steam at the W. S. Neal 27 where the Tigers turned it over on downs.

After another good effort by their defense, the Tiger offense got one more chance to add to their lead before intermission. Taking over at their 40 following a Blue Eagle punt the Tigers drove within field goal range where Cameron Dunegan came on to nail a 41 yard field goal as the first half clock ticked off the final seconds. With the kick the Tigers took a 10 - 0 lead to the locker room.

Things would stay that way until late in the Third period when James Jones culminated a 54 yard scoring drive by the Tigers with a six yard dash to pay dirt. Dunegan's extra-point attempt sailed wide right this time but Thomasville was on top 16 - 0 with 3:51 to play in the third stanza.

It didn't take the Blue Eagles long to answer the Tiger score as they took the ensuing kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown. Their two point conversion attempt failed leaving Thomasville out front 16 - 6 with 3:51 to play in the third quarter.

As quickly as W. S. Neal attempted to close the gap the Tigers opened it again. It all started with Tiger deep back Alex Buford returning the Blue Eagle kickoff to the W. S. Neal 33. From there the Tiger offense pounded it in with James White barreling in from 10 yards out. Cameron Dunegan was on target this time and Thomasville had extended its lead to 23 - 6 with 1:29 left in the third quarter.

The Blue Eagles wouldn't simply go away however and scored again on a 40 yard pass play with 9:18 remaining in the fourth quarter. Their two point conversion attempt was good this time closing the gap to 23 - 14.

That's as close as it would get with the Tiger defense taking care of business against the Blue Eagle offense and the Tiger offense burning up the clock. The game ended with the Tigers inside the W. S. Neal five where they elected to run out the clock rather than add points to their total.

Looking ahead the Tigers will be celebrating homecoming this week as they play host to the Sumter County Wildcats. The Wildcats who will enter this week with a 2 - 2 record just like the Tigers, will bring a senior laden squad to D. F. Anderson Field. " Sumter County has a very good football team," Tiger Coach Jack Hankins said. "They are experienced, big, fast and loaded with athletes on both sides of the ball. Their two losses thus far this season have come from a 6A opponent and the defending 3A State Champions. This is a squad that has a significant number of their starters returning from last year's team which lost out in the second round of the playoffs to eventual State Champion Cordova."

The game between the Thomasville Tigers and the Sumter County Wildcats is scheduled for Friday September 26, at D. F. Anderson Field in Thomasville with kickoff set for 7:00 PM.