ANATOMY OF AN UPSET | Tatum ambushes top-ranked Troup, without QB Golightly, deals Tigers a 33-21 loss
When Tatum High School all-everything freshman Rodgers Taylor got hurt last week, a lot of people weren’t giving the Eagles a very big chance in their game Thursday night at home against Troup – you know, the No. 1 team in the state in the Class 3A, Division II state poll.
We admit it – we bought into that, too. Look at the power picks list here (WHO’S WINNING?! | Troup/Tatum tonight; KHS/PT, Hendo/Lindale tomorrow, and more: it’s the GABRIEL JORDAN / ETBLITZ POWER PICKS!) to see how many of our 16-person panel picked Tatum to pull the upset.
You know who did believe? The players and coaches in the Tatum locker room.
Coach Whitney Keeling and his Eagles pulled off an ambush, going up 33-7 by the end of the first half, and ultimately hanging on for a almost-comfortable 33-21 win.
Troup (4-1) was held to 21 points – 34 points less than its 55-points-per-game average.
For injury reasons or for whatever reasons, Troup quarterback Trevor Golightly, one of the state’s best, was dressed out and warmed up, but did not play in the game against Tatum. Golightly and his brother XXXX made news earlier this year when they won their eligibility in an appeal with the UIL.
Still, coach Sam Wells’ Tigers will be back. They’ll have an open date next weekend, and then begin district play at Winona on Oct. 9.
Tatum (4-1) made its statement win, its fourth straight after opening the season with a 37-34 loss to West Rusk. If the Eagles had been four points better in that one, they’d be undefeated right now.
Tatum is also off this coming week, and is back in action Oct. 9 in its own district opener at Atlanta.
Tatum-Troup was the only game involving teams in the ETBlitz.com coverage area on Thursday night. We’ll have the standings and official schedule for the weekend in the morning, but to see whom and where the other ETB-area teams are playing, click that Power Picks link above.
In Tatum Thursday, the Eagles landed an early pair of uppercuts, taking a two-touchdown lead after about four minutes off the first quarter clock.
Alijah Williams scored on a 53-yard run and with less than a minute and a half off the clock (10:34). The extra point made it 7-0 Tatum.
The second score came on a fourth-and-3 play at the Troup 13-yard-line. It was big Ty Moore, who looks like a defensive end that decided one day he’d play running back.
The extra point was partially blocked, but Tatum made the early plays it needed to go up 13-0 with 7:36 left in the first quarter.
A couple of drives later, Troup, having gotten the ball after a punt at its own 42-yard-line, gave it right back: Quincy Davis picked off a pass at midfield, and returned it to the Tigers’ 34.
Tatum quarterback Dane Moore broke free from the jumbled mess in the middle of the field for a 9-yard gain, to Troup’s 11, and then two plays later, Ty Moore again, up the middle for his second score of the night and a 19-7 Tatum lead. The two-point conversion failed, but the Eagles led by three scores with less than a minute and a half left in the first quarter.
Troup played a couple of different players at QB in lieu of Golightly’s unavailability, including running back Brett Wells. Troup drove into scoring position, at Tatum’s 24-yard-line, but the drive stalled there – Wells’ fourth-down pass into the end zone fell incomplete, and the Eagles had forced a turnover on downs and got the ball back.
Gerrick “DD” Brooks wasted no time: a 61-yard touchdown run. Most of Tatum’s running backs look like grown men, guys. Brooks scored with 5:49 left in the half, and then the Eagles added the two-point conversion for a 27-7 lead.
Davis made a second pick, with a return of about 10, on the next Troup drive, and the Eagles had the ball back with 2:31 left in the half at Tatum’s own 30. Davis picked off sophomore Jayden Minor twice.
The pick would lead to another score, a 23-yard touchdown pass from Dane Moore to Logan Tovar. The point after was missed, but the Eagles – who added that one with 38 seconds left in the half – went to the break up 33-7 on the state’s top-ranked team in 3A-DII.
The Eagles wouldn’t get another point in the game, the way things turned out. And Troup would outscore Tatum 21-0 in the second half. But the 33 was enough.
The Tigers tried to chop away. Set up by a good punt return by James Pierce, Troup began the next drive at the Tatum 37, but it was a one-play drive: the amazing Brett Wells took it to the house, a 37-yard run. Anthony Zuniga’s extra point was good and Troup had cut Tatum’s lead to 19 points (33-14).
The Tigers would score what would be the final points of the game, Wells again on a 41-yard touchdown with 11:52 left in the fourth quarter. But that was as close as the Tigers would get on this night.
Now, we’ll see if Tatum is ranked in the 3A-DII top 10 after this, and if Troup falls, and how much.