EAGLES CAN’T ESCAPE TEXARKANA WITH WIN | Liberty-Eylau tough at home; Tatum slips, 36-26
One of the biggest games of Friday night was in District 8-3A, Division I, but on the outer edges of what we know as East Texas, all the way up in Texarkana, as Liberty-Eylau hosted the 10th-ranked Tatum Eagles.
L-E, with a now very impressive-looking win over Henderson in its back pocket (they’re the only team to beat the Lions this year), was able to hold off Tatum for the 36-26 win, and that’s saying something: Tatum had already won two games over state-ranked teams and a very good West Rusk team.
With the win, the Leopards are 4-1, and 1-0 in district play, as they had an open date last week, the first weekend of the district schedule.
Coach Whitney Keeling’s Tatum Eagles are 4-2 overall – they had lost to Newton in the non-district schedule – and they’re off this coming week. The Eagles will be back in action at Gladewater on Thursday night, Oct. 17.
In the third quarter, the Leopards took a 28-20 lead on a 10-yard pass from quarterback Trip Baysinger to DeShun Witherall, and then Tatum closed the gap with a scoring run by quarterback Jacorie Bradley, a 1-yard run that got the Eagles within two (28-26). They failed to convert, though, on the two-point attempt.
L-E would get an insurance touchdown, a 5-yarder by Arian Taylor, and the Leopards held on for the win.
Earlier in the game, L-E scored first, a 3-yard run by Baysinger, and then Tatum took the lead on a pair of runs by Bradley: a first-quarter score from 4 yards out and then another, from 19 yards, in the second quarter.
L-E tied it when Baysinger connected with Witherall on a 25-yard pass.
It was a flurry before halftime: two scores in the last 16 seconds. Bradley scored on a 2-yard run – yes, he scored all the touchdowns in the game for Tatum – and the Eagles had a 20-13 lead. But a kick return all the way back to Tatum’s 10-yard-line allowed Baysinger just enough time left in the half to find Dequane Prevo and tie the game at 20 headed into the break.
The game’s other score was a second 10-yard pass from Baysinger to Witherall, who had three touchdown catches in the contest.
