The Luverne Tigers were able to keep it close to the Abbeville Yellow Jackets, but Abbeville managed to keep the Tigers at bay with a 38-21 win.

The Tigers scored first with a 25-yard field goal by Ryan Waters, but Abbeville came back to lead 18-3 at halftime after scoring three touchdowns.

Luverne fought back to make the score 24-15 after a touchdown pass from Tige Townsend to Chris McGhee that went for 55 yards and a quarterback sneak from Townsend from three yards out.

With the gap at nine points, the Tigers had a chance to get the ball back after a sack on fourth down, but a facemask call gave Abbeville new life.

“After that happened, they laid up a long pass on another fourth down later in the drive and we had double coverage, but they had a good, tall receiver who came down with it,” said head coach Les Sanders.

Abbeville put on a couple of late touchdowns, including one with 38 seconds to play to make it 38-15.

On the ensuing kickoff, Jonathan Chambers returned the kick to the half-yard line where Townsend put it in on the next play.

“We had a lot of chance to quit, but we didn’t,” Sanders said. “Several times we got it one score, but they made some plays. I’m not happy with the score, but I’m proud of the effort. We’ve been fighting injuries and on the road against a team of that caliber, they could have easily folded the tent, but they didn’t.”