Go Friday Night

THE TIGER IS BACK

How about them Tigers! For the past couple of weeks all I’ve heard is how bad the Tigers are doing. How Lance Day can’t pass, how the defense can’t get the job done! All along I’ve said that Chad Rogers is working a plan and before to long things are going to start clicking. We all have to remember that this squad is NEW. New players in new positions means kinks in the chain but it’s nothing that can’t be solved.

Tonight (9/22), the Tigers proved to all the critics that they are the real deal. All week long Chad Rogers and the entire coaching staff did what had to be done to get those nasty kinks worked out. I talked with several of the players and they all told me this was one of the toughest weeks of practice ever!

Over the last couple of games we watched a Tiger team that had great moments followed by disaster, penalties, missed tackles and so much more.

Now we can honestly say the Tigers have fixed what’s broken and solved the puzzle that’s been plaguing them for so long. Amarillo Palo Duro came into the Tigers den tonight and now they have a long drive back north wondering what went wrong.

Palo Duro is one of the fastest teams the Tigers have ever gone against and they could do nothing more then go three and out. Sure they had a few big plays but the Tiger D did the job like days past and shut them down play after play.

Lance Day led the offence like a proven General marching his troops in to war. He was finally able to finds his receivers making some beautiful passes and what about Will Clay and Chase Arrendale. Both backs for the Tigers showed the world they can run the football and run it well!

After 4 the Tigers pick up the first win of the season beating Palo Duro 35 to ZIP!

The glory days of the past are now upon us again as this team is now playing as one. Chad Rogers said it would happen and he was right. He said it would click and when it does watch out. All you have to do is look at tonight’s game and what this team can do and it really speaks for itself. I think the Tigers have fixed the problems and are ready for whatever the world throws at them.

To all the armchair quarterbacks that like to sit in the stands and second-guess everything the coaches and kids do… What do you have to say now?

Good job Tigers…

• Chuck Montana
• September 22, 2006 11:42 PM

TIGERS LOOSE SEASON OPENER

What happened with the Tigers? That’s the word around town after the Tigers lost the season opener to Monahans 12 to 7. It’s been a long time since the Tigers fell in the season opener.

You had to be at the game to truly understand that this contest wasn’t as close as it sounded. For starters the game was 2 hours late getting started thanks to Mother Nature! Thunderstorms rolled in to La Grande Commutations stadium about an hour before kick off and the rain didn’t stop until late in the 3rd quarter.

As the game started things looked promising for the Tigers as Will Clay broke though the middle and ran for an 80-yard touchdown. Not to be outdone Monahans ran the exact same play and did the exact same thing, a 77-yard run to tie it up all within the first four minutes of the game.

As the game went on the BIG D for both Snyder and Monahans did a great job stopping the run and just killing the pass. At the end of the 4th, Snyder QB Lance Day was able to find the receivers to move them down field getting them into the red zone with seconds left on the clock. Day took them to the line in a split eye with two receivers at the top and one at the bottom. The receivers took off into the end zone, Day passed the ball to the bottom corner where it was tipped by Monahans but deflected into the arms if another Tiger, good for the touchdown… BUT WAIT… NO.. The ref said it hit the ground!

This was one of two bad calls the killed the Tigers. La Grande has a JUMBO screen that shows every replay and all the fans saw first hand that ball did not hit the ground but in fact was a good catch. The other “bad� call came when Lance Day tried to run for the 1st down and the refs called him short. Again the JUMBO screen says otherwise but what can you do? Monahans took the Tiger yet again in a game that will haunt the Tigers all year long.

So the 1st game is out of the way. The opening jitters should be gone and hopefully the boys can put behind them what happened last Thursday night.

The offence is still a little loose but I’m sure Coach Rogers will do what it takes to get them ready for this coming Friday when we welcome Hereford.

It’s tough to see the Tigers loose a game like this. It’s easy for me to say they got robbed but I’m just the guy on the radio calling what I see. I do wonder what the fans think when they see something like this and what the Coaches do to help the boys overcome something like this and get them re-focused on this weeks game.

Give me your two cents and I’ll talk to you all next week!

• Chuck Montana
• September 4, 2006 12:07 AM
• Comments (1)