September 22, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
The DCHS Tigers (3-2) are riding a three-game winning streak and hoping that momentum continues tonight as they head east to face the Stone Memorial Panthers at Crossville,
Kick-off will be at 7 p.m. and WJLE will have LIVE coverage on AM 1480/FM 101.7 and on the LIVE stream at www.wjle.com.
After an 0-2 start to the season with disappointing losses to Warren (1-4) and Smith (4-1) counties, the Tigers have put together back-to-back to back wins over Livingston Academy (2-3), Watertown (2-3), and Gordonsville (2-3).
Last year the Tigers lost to the Panthers at home on senior night 29-28 in overtime. Tonight, DC faces a 4-1 Stone Memorial team whose only loss of the season was last week to Meigs County 33-25. Stone Memorial has beaten Cookeville 25-20, Sweetwater 40-16, Cumberland County 35-0, and White County 28-26.
Reflecting on last week’s 21-7 homecoming victory over Gordonsville, Tiger Coach Steve Trapp said both the offense and defense played well although there is room for improvement going forward.
“Sometimes on offense we will run to set up the pass and other times we will pass to set up the run. The biggest thing for us is to always be ready and prepared to execute whatever is needed and on this particular night they did a good job. Still, we saw some first down inefficiencies and had a couple of plays where we had multiple penalties and some of those are things like after the whistle mistakes that should be controlled. That was frustrating to see but at the end of the night we hung our hat on that defense and they are the reason we have been able to do what we have. We did give up a touchdown in the second half on special teams and we don’t like that but ultimately we got more points than Gordonsville and won the game,” said Coach Trapp.
Although they have better overall records, DeKalb County (3-2, 1-0 Region) is undefeated in the Class 4A, Region 4 Region standings with Upperman (5-0, 3-0 Region) and Stone Memorial (4-1, 2-0 Region). The other four teams in the Region are Macon County (4-1, 1-1 Region), Cumberland County (2-3, 0-2 Region), Livingston Academy (2-3, 0-2 Region), and White County 2-3, 0-2 Region),
A win tonight for the Tigers would keep them in the hunt for the regular season Region title with five games left in the campaign.
Coach Trapp said the Tigers will need to bring their A-game.
“Defensively we will need to make sure we are in the right spots and ingrain in our brains the things we want to do to counter what they want to do. Offensively, we have to make some plays. As we tell our guys all the time, we have to be good at our base stuff, but as we get deeper into the season and especially with these region games we have to be able to tweak and create some of those explosive plays while being able to executive and move the football because it all comes down to moving the chains and getting first downs. Its easier to do that when you are good on first down so that third down efficiency is better. You want those manageable situations. We also must take care of the football because turnovers and penalties will kill you. Hopefully we will play a clean and aggressive football game and come out with what we want in the end,” said Coach Trapp.
WJLE’s Pre-Game shows begin with “Coach to Coach” at 5:00 p.m. featuring former UT assistant coach Doug Matthews with Tennessee Titans Radio Broadcaster Dave McGinnis and broadcaster Larry Stone talking Tennessee and SEC football.
“Coach to Coach” is followed by “Murphy’s Matchups at 6:00 p.m., a look at Tennessee High School Football from Murphy Fair with commentary on games and coaches’ interviews.
“Tiger Talk” airs at 6:30 p.m. with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor interviewing Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger football players Wil Farris, Ari White, and Jordan Parker.