Tigers come up short in overtime versus Navy
Field goal thwarts Hargrave PG’s
Annapolis, MD – Hargrave Military Academy’s quarterback Jarrett Dunston tucked his head and went into the end zone for an apparent touchdown from one-yard out and a victory for the Tigers in overtime, but Navy’s twelfth man reared his ugly face. A flag was thrown for illegal touching by the officials on Hargrave and they were backed up to the five-yard line. On the next play Dunston found wide receiver Vidal Hazelton in the corner of the end zone, but once again the home team prevailed. A flag was once again thrown for offensive pass interference backing the Tigers up to the twenty yard line. From there the Tigers failed to make it into the end zone giving Navy a 16-13 overtime victory on Sunday afternoon. The PG’s, who literally doubled their touchdown output in overtime, found themselves on the short end when the final whistle blew.
The Tigers were explosive all day long on both sides of the ball. Hargrave rushed for almost 300 yards on the day and the defense held Navy to one pass completion for 12-yards. On paper the Tigers won in every category, but the scoreboard is what matters in the end. Running backs Keiland Williams and Mike Ford both had stellar games rushing the ball despite a number of flags thrown by the officials negating big gains. Williams had 170 yards on the ground with a touchdown, while Ford ran for 101 yards on 7 carries respectively.
Defensively the Tigers were on a mission. The Hargrave “1st line of defense” played with reckless abandon. Defensive linemen Melvin Alaeze, Callahan Bright, Jerrell Powe, Darrius Massenburg, and Justin Mincey consistently kept the Midshipmen in check despite a very powerful offensive option attack. The line backing corp consisting of Darius Dewberry, Mario Harvey, Rahkeem Smith, Josh Soto, and Charles Owens stopped the Navy offense on a number of key third downs. The secondary played like seasoned veterans, safeties Corey Goodson and Zaire Kitchen were stellar on run defense and broke up a number of passes for the Tigers. Cornerbacks Anthony Johnson, Khalil Conteh, and Ryan Brinson shut down the Navy receivers all day long only giving up a single reception for a twelve yard gain.
The Tigers got on the board first when Keiland Williams found a seam in the Midshipmen defense, taking the ball 44-yards into the end zone for a 7-3 lead. The Tigers scored again when Khalil Conteh found a weakness in the Navy punt team and blocked it into the end zone helping lead to another Hargrave score to give them a 13-7 lead.
On the first drive of the second half, Navy took the ball down the field for their first and only touchdown on the day. It was not until later that the Navy kicker hit a 47 yard field goal late in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 13-13 to send the game into overtime.
In overtime the Hargrave offensive line did what they had all day long and opened holes for the Tigers running backs. The line, consisting of John Jerry, Brian Kelly, Matt Hardrick, Mike Harness, Darius Myers, Andrew Farr, along with tight ends TC Drake and Cody Slate opened hole after hole all day long and it did not change in overtime. Add full back Cedric Hickman into the mix and there were not many blocks that were missed. The Tigers had the ball down at the 6-inch line before a barrage of flags hit the field and two touchdowns were nullified due to them.
The Tigers take a week off, but will visit Danville, VA in two weeks to take on Averett University.
Other top performers included:
WR- Joe Nairn
WR- Tim Jones
WR- Craig Hayden
RB- Morgan Green
DL- Horace Hubbard
DL- Ernie Hodge
