Tucker resilience shines in 28-26 come from behind win over St. Pius

When it comes to resilience, the Tucker Tigers put on a great display on Friday night as they took on the St. Pius Golden Lions in a key region matchup in which the Tigers found themselves trailing 7-0 at the end of the first quarter after St. Pius would score courtesy of a second and goal from the 1-yard line rushing touchdown by Cayden DeBose.

On their next two possessions, the Tigers would be forced to punt the ball away after stalling on their third drive of the game and then on their next possession, a Tucker fumble would give the Golden Lions the ball in Tigers’ territory, leading to their next touchdown, a Peyton Sowell rushing touchdown to give St. Pius a 13-0 lead after the failed extra point.

Later, a muffed punt recover by Tucker would lead to the Golden Lions taking possession inside the Tigers’ 10-yard line and they would capitalize as Colin Crosby would connect with Carter Kandilakis for the third St. Pius touchdown of the night as they would take a 20-0 lead. However, the Tigers would finally strike with just as the horn sounded to end the second quarter after sophomore Jace German would connect with Elijah Ffrench for his first passing touchdown of the night.

And while the Tigers failed on the two point conversion, Tucker walked into the locker room with momentum, which followed them into the start of the third quarter as German would lead the Tigers down field for his second passing touchdown of the night, this time to Robert Robinson and with the two-point conversion, the Tigers trailed 20-14.

As the fourth quarter got underway, momentum would still be behind Tucker as they would score once again courtesy of a Izayah Horsham rushing touchdown and with the extra point, the Tigers would go up 21-20 for their first lead of the night.

However, with more than enough time on the clock, the Golden Lions would finally reach the end zone for the first time in the second half as Kandilakis would rush for his second touchdown of the night to give St. Pius a 26-21 lead with 1:21 remaining in the quarter, however they would fail on the two-point conversion attempt.

Unbothered by the time left, German would lead the Tigers back the other way and would toss his third touchdown of the night after being forced out of the pocket and extending the play with his legs to eventually find a wide open Camryn Freeland who’s catch and run would give the Tigers the 28-26 lead and eventual win.

“I told our kids at the beginning of the game, the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is just the a little extra, so they found a little extra right there at the end and it was an awesome job,” Tucker head coach, Lonnie Jones said after Friday’s win as he praised his players for their efforts and will to not give in.

“This man right here kept his poise in the second half and started taking what the defense was giving him and did what we knew he could do,” Jones added as he credited German for keeping his composure despite some of the early issues the Tigers dealt with.

“I just remembered what Coach told me, slow the game down, take what they give you,” German said of Jones’ message to him. “At half-time he said we’re going to come back and win this game and that’s what we did,” German added. “Perfect game plan,” German said.

With the win, Tucker has set up a region championship matchup next week against region leader Marist and Jones says the Tigers have to have better execution in order to pick up the win next week. “When things got bad and we got down early, I think our kids got over zealous and started trying to do things that they weren’t supposed to do instead of just doing their job. In the second half they did a better job of just doing their job,” Jones said of his players, noting success against Marist will come down to the Tigers have to “do their job every single play,”.