By: Shayla Terry

The Luverne Tigers returned home Thursday night with their third season loss, after falling short to the New Brockton Gamecocks 33-49.

“It was a really good game,” Luverne Head Coach Scott Rials said. “There was a lot of back and forth. Our guys played hard, and theirs did too.”

The Gamecocks were the first to put points on the board, and managed to keep the Tiger offense at bay for the entire first quarter.

In the second quarter, sophomore quarterback Dionte (Tay) Brantley ran 11 yards for a touchdown. The touchdown was followed with a successful field goal attempt by sophomore linebacker Chase White.

The Tiger touchdown was met with a touchdown from New Brockton. The Gamecocks pushed the score to 14-7 with a successful two-point conversion.

Going into half time the score remained unchanged.

In the second half, one Tiger stepped it up. Junior running back Marcus McGhee scored three out of four remaining touchdowns for Luverne. He finished the night was 279 rushing yards.

“He’s really had a fine year,” Rials said.

During third quarter play, Brantley completed a two-yard pass to senior wide receiver Antavious Brown for a Tiger touchdown. Yet, the field goal attempt went unsuccessful.

Freshman wide receiver Satyler Wilson contributed 64 rushing yards of his own.

“We had two things that kind of hurt us,” Rials said.

“We had a couple of turnovers, and we just really did not tackle well.”

In the final quarter, Gamecock advancement picked up and surpassed the Tigers.

“They got up on us, and we just had trouble coming back the last time,” Rials said.

This Friday night, the Luverne Tigers will travel to Elba for an in conference game. Rials says that he looks for the Tigers to bounce back.

“We’ve had a couple of setbacks,” Rials said.

“Overall, our guys are hard workers and dedicated.”

Luverne will go into its ninth game of the season 5-2.