September 1, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County Tigers are looking to remain undefeated on the young football season tonight (Thursday) while getting a leg up as the race begins for the regular season region title but to do it, they will have to take down the Macon County Tigers.
https://www.wjle.com/tiger-talk/
Kick-off is at 7 p.m. at DCHS in Smithville and WJLE FM 101.7 will have LIVE coverage. WJLE AM 1480 will bring you LIVE the season opener of the Tennessee Volunteers hosting Ball State on the VOL Network beginning with the Big Orange Countdown at 4 p.m. and kick-off at 6 p.m. (Smithville time).
The TSSAA announced earlier this year that it would have to move about 20 high school games each week to Thursday to accommodate for a decline in the number of officials. The number of games in each part of the state that were moved depended on how many officiating crews were available.
Tonight’s battle between DeKalb County (2-0) and Macon County (2-0) will be the only Thursday night game for DeKalb this season.
DeKalb County is off to a great start with victories over Warren County 35-34 two weeks ago and a 17 to 14 win at Smith County last week.
In last week’s game, the Tiger defense stopped the Owls on a 4th and 2 play from the Smith County 40-yard line with only 1:40 left and from there the Tiger offense took over and marched down field to get into position for a last second field goal by Tiger kicker Juan Ortega which was good from 31 yards out.
“When our guys stepped up and made that play (stopping the Owls on 4th down) I was very confident in how this game was going to end. We had a couple of plays in our pocket that felt very good that would get us some chunk yards and as soon as they (Smith County) didn’t get the first down my first thought was to make sure Juan (kicker) was ready. We were trying to get down there in a good range and as close as we possibly could so kudos to our offense in moving the ball down there. We used all three of our time outs and the last one with four seconds left and he (Juan) came in and did his thing,” said Coach Trapp.
While DeKalb County is looking to stay perfect record wise tonight so is Macon County, who has defeated East Robertson 43-33 and Westmoreland 20-15 in the last two weeks.
“We have had some nip and tuck games the last couple of years. Two years ago, we beat them with 40 something seconds on the clock and then last year they did the same thing to us. We had some turnovers in that game, a pick 6, a kickoff return, and things like that so we just need to play a clean football game. Its going to be another physical battle between two teams playing extremely hard because it is a region game so there is more at stake but even so its going to be business as usual as far as our mindset and the process of work and getting prepared to play,” 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 former coach 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 Juan Ortega, Wil Farris, and Ty Webb.
Kick-off is at 7:00 p.m. with play-by-play coverage on WJLE FM 101.7 from the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor and Luke Willoughby. Listen LIVE on WJLE FM 101.7 and LIVE Streaming 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*-Smithville 7 p.m.
September 9: Watertown-Smithville 7 p.m.
September 16: Cumberland County*- Crossville 7 p.m.
September 23: Cannon County-Woodbury 7 p.m.
September 30: Livingston Academy* (HOMECOMING)-Smithville 7 p.m.
October 14: Upperman*-Baxter 7 p.m.
October 21: Goodpasture-Goodpasture 7 p.m.
October 28: Stone Memorial* Smithville 7 p.m.
WJLE will have LIVE coverage of each week’s games and LIVE streaming at www.wjle.com.