November 3, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County Tigers will begin their Class 4A State Football play-off run Friday night, November 4 as they travel to Ooltewah to face the East Hamilton Hurricanes.
https://www.wjle.com/tiger-talk/
Kick-off will be at 7 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) which is 6 p.m. Smithville time.
It will be the second straight meeting between these two schools in the first round of the state football playoffs. Last year the Tigers journeyed to Ooltewah and won 35-21 to advance.
The Tigers concluded the regular season last week at 6-4 and 4th place in Region 4-4A at 2-3 while East Hamilton finished 7-3 and won the Region 3-4A regular season championship at 6-0.
The Hurricanes this year defeated Ooltewah 52-21, East Ridge 38-0, Sequoyah 48-6, Chattanooga Central 27-10, Soddy Daisy 42-0, Red Bank 14-0, and Hixson 26-14. East Hamilton has lost to Heritage, Georgia 24-9, McMinn County 29-20, and Friendship Christian 31-14.
Tiger Coach Steve Trapp sizes up the Hurricanes.
“They are a quality football team. They wouldn’t be first in their region if they weren’t. They won some close games within their region. The top couple of teams in their region are pretty close together. It’s a little bit different for their bottom end teams although they did compete. They (Hurricanes) are a little bit different from last year in that they don’t have a true quarterback. Their true quarterback got hurt early in the season or maybe even before the season started so their running back from last year has been playing quarterback all year and he has been doing a great job. He is going to run the football a lot but when he throws it they have a big time receiver who has made a lot of plays for them. That is kind of their forte so we will need a big time focus on stopping the quarterback run game and then the things that come off that as far as the read game because he can hand it off, keep it, or simply throw it down field 50 yards for a jump ball. We have worked hard to prepare for that and we have a plan to do it. Offensively we have to make sure we are executing. Last week in the second half of the Stone Memorial game we were not very efficient on first down and that put us behind the chains and that makes things a little bit more difficult. Those third downs and 10s or 12s (to get a first down) is not where we need to live. We need to make sure we do a good job on first down and eliminate any possibility of turnovers and penalties but to play very aggressively, physical, and smart,” said Coach Trapp.
WJLE’s Pre-Game shows begin with “Coach to Coach” at 4:30 p.m. featuring former UT assistant coach Doug Matthews with former coach and Tennessee Titans Radio Play by Play Color Analyst Dave McGinnis and broadcaster Larry Stone talking Tennessee and SEC football.
“Tiger Talk” airs at 5:30 p.m. with Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger football players Austin Nicholson and Ari White and Senior Manager Sheridan O’Conner.
Kick-off is at 7:00 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) which is 6: 00 p.m. Smithville Time with play-by-play coverage on WJLE AM 1480 and WJLE FM 101.7 with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor and Luke Willoughby. You may also listen on the LIVE Stream at www.wjle.com.
The DCHS 2022 Football Schedule is as follows:
REGION OPPONENTS (*)
August 19: Warren County-(Tigers won 35-34).
August 26: Smith County-(Tigers won 17-14)
September 1 (THURSDAY): Macon County*- (Tigers lost 21-13).
September 9: Watertown-(Tigers won 26-14)
September 16: Cumberland County* (Tigers won 48-13)
September 23: Cannon County- (Tigers won 55-7)
September 30: Livingston Academy* (HOMECOMING)-(Tigers won 48-0)
October 14: Upperman*- (Tigers lost 17-16).
October 21: Goodpasture-(Tigers lost 24-17)
October 28: Stone Memorial* (Tigers lost 29-28)