Published: October 25, 2008 12:36 am      

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Tigers up against wall after loss to relentless Waco

WACO — As Tigers coach Dave Henigan said so accurately after a 35-6 loss to Waco High on Friday night, the Tigers have made life a lot harder on themselves where making the playoffs is concerned.

They did it by getting crushed in the first half for the second time this season.

The first time the Tigers trailed Hewitt Midway 29-0 at halftime a month ago. This time it was Waco who dominated the first half, scoring five touchdowns.

“They didn’t do anything that we hadn’t seen before,” Henigan said. “They just whipped us.”

If this was “Moving Week” in 16-4A, the Tigers moved aside, at least out of the Waco High playoff express.

The Lions (5-3, 3-2) should be closing in on a playoff berth with Midway and Midlothian left on the schedule.

For the Tigers (4-4, 2-3), they’ll have to come out and execute in every phase of the game next week against rival Waxahachie and then think about their playoff possibilities. The best case scenario for the Tigers would be to beat the Indians by 14 points and get back into a good tiebreaker situation should they end up tied for third place with Waco and Waxahachie.

But the Tigers have to regroup from this one first.They allowed touchdowns on five of six possessions, had 56 yards on offense and had a turnover and three poor punts in the first half as Waco built a 35-0 halftime lead.

The Tigers’ offensive line, which had been pretty consistent all season, couldn’t open any holes against a quick Lions’ front seven. The Tigers, who had a season-high 256 rushing yards last week, had 16 yards on 15 carries in the first half, and that’s only because Cody Evans had a 19-yard run on the last play of the first half in what was an obvious passing down for the Tigers.

Evans, who had school-record 44 carries last week, had nine carries for 34 yards in the first half. He had 225 yards last week, but most of that came against a soft Ennis defensive line. Evans didn’t find the same holes against Waco until the second half, when he had 105 of his 139 yards.

“We needed to open up some holes,” center Tyler Wigfall said. “We didn’t do that. There’s a mindset you have to have.”

The Tigers trailed 14-0 when they did pull off their best play of the game, a fake punt that saw Means hook up with Evans for a 14-yard completion to the Waco 42.

The Tigers ended up punting from their own 20 as JaVonti Hines was tackled for a 7-yard loss, and after a penalty moved the Tigers back 10 yards, Waco’s Tywan Benjamin used his speed to sack Means for an 11-yard loss. Means had an incomplete pass on third-and-38.

Waco answered that stop with a 14-yard run by Clark to make it 21-0 with 7:46 left in the second quarter.

Hines then fumbled the kickoff as the ball bounced off his helmet on a short kickoff. On third-and-11, Lions quarterback Kollin Kahler scored on a 22-yard run as he ran unchallenged into the end zone.

Waco added a fitting touch to the end of the first half as Kahler, who had completed two passes for 11 yards, found a wide open Kevin Hill for a 53-yard touchdown and a 35-0 lead with 34 seconds in the first half.

“We messed up on a bunch of plays,” sophomore linebacker Ike Hunter said. “I know I missed a couple of tackles that were killers.”



Waco 35, Corsicana 0

Waco 14 21 0 0 — 35

Corsicana 0 0 6 0 — 6



First quarter

W — Bronshae Dugas 4 run (Ernesto Guevera kick), 8:40

W — Dugas 31 run (Guevera kick), 6:16

Second quarter

W — Toylon Clark 14 run (Guevera kick), 7:46

W — Kollin Kahler 22 run (Guevera kick), 6:43

W — Kevin Hill 53 pass from Kahler (Guevera failed), :34

Third quarter

C — Andey Means 6 run (kick failed), 3:54





C W

First downs 14 18

Rush-yards 35-147 45-381

Passing yards 40 64

C-A-I 5-16-1 3-6-0

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1

Punts-avg. 5-31.2 1-30

Penalties-yards 4-22 8-74



Individual

Rushing — C: Cody Evans 26-139, Andey Means 7-0, JaVonti Hines 2 - (-2). W: Bronshae Dugas 15-145, Toylon Clark 15-136, Larry Jordan 5-46, Kollin Kahler 2-36, Keyshun Russell 3-27, Dwight Batts 1-7, Andrew Reynolds 3 (-6), Kevin Hill 1- (-10).

Passing — C: Means 5-16-1 40.W: Kahler 3-6-0 64.

Receiving — C: Johnathan Neal 1-15, Cody Evans 1-14, Tremaigne Dickson 1-9, Chris Humphries 1-6, Hank Kirkpatrick 1 (-4). W: Kevin Hill 1-53, Denzel Mitchell 2-11.