Tigers fall to 4A Daleville Warhawks

Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 28, 2004

The Greenville Tigers' first outing this season ended with a dismal showing in non-regional play as they fell to Daleville 19 to 6

The Warhawks, coached by Gary Wayne Parrish, dominated the Tigers throughout the game. It can easily be said that this 4A powerhouse enters the stadium ready to play good old-fashioned smash mouth football.

This was very evident in the opening play of the game when the Warhawk quarterback connected with senior Brandon Brown who made a 90-yard dash for daylight.

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Brown made his run with 11:45 left in the first quarter, and the Warhawks drew first blood of the season with a score of 6-0.

The point after try (PAT) was good and the score stood at 7-0.

The Tigers held them for a while, but with 2:06 left in the first quarter, another Daleville TD raised the score to 13-0.

The PAT failed.

In the first minute of the second quarter, Daleville scored with a 39-yard field goal, bringing the score up to 16-0.

Greenville finally came to life in the middle of the second quarter with 6:26 left in play. Freshman Jamario Smith ran the ball in.

The two-point conversion failed and the score stood at 16-6.

Daleville wasn't finished in the half and with two seconds left in play, the kicker sent the ball from 17-yards out through the uprights, ending the half leading the Tigers 19-6.

In the first half, Greenville had five first downs to Daleville's 4 first downs.

The Tigers were penalized five times for a total of 36 yards and the Warhawks were penalized one time for 5 yards.

The only fumble of the first half came from Daleville in the second quarter on a TD run.

In the second half, Greenville received the opening kickoff and junior Rhshad Knight was there to return it for 23 yards, breathing some life into the Tigers.

Moving left to right, senior quarterback Andrew Hartman connected with junior Michael McDonald who carried the ball up the middle to the Daleville 49-yard line.

Hartman continued to thread the needle's eye perfectly connecting with junior Isaiah Mack, and followed that by staying perfectly in the pocket and connecting with sophomore Lynn Lewis who gained yardage for the Tigers.

An incomplete pass from the shotgun brought the biggest drive of the night for Greenville to a close.

Daleville used a no huddle offense, which seemed to bewilder the players and bemuse the coaches. However, it did seem to confuse some Daleville players as well as evident when senior safety Devoski McMeans made a huge interception at the Warhawk 23-yard line with 3:49 remaining in the third quarter.

Unfortunately, the Tigers were not able to generate any points from the play and punted four plays later and the quarter ended with neither team raising any points.

The 4th quarter opened, and Greenville quickly got the ball back and began another drive to Warhawk country.

Hartman connected again with Mack for another 23 yard run.

In the next down, Hartman connected with Lewis for six yards, but had his bell rung while doing it.

He quickly recovered and was back to see Hartman connect with Knight at tailback to bring up another first down. Senior Brad Heartsill had to punt it away for the second time during the game on the 4th down.

Following a short Daleville drive, Greenville again took the football and lost another set of downs.

Heartsill again had to punt and the ball landed on the Warhawk 2-yard line, and the intended receiver took it for a run up to the 48-yard line.

Senior Kelcius Savage apparently didn't like that play and when another Tiger popped the ball free, Savage was quick to pounce on it.

But any further scoring for either team was not meant to be.

With just under 2 minutes left, Daleville began its final offensive drive of the night, dropping to their knees.

Daleville had three turnovers on the night with two fumbles and one interception.

Greenville led the game in penalties with 9 penalties that cost them 70 yards while Daleville had 7 penalties that cost them 45 yards.

Next Friday night, the Tigers travel to Indian Stadium in Wetumpka.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m.