It was a bit of a grind. The Tigers offense is still not clicking on all cylinders. The line on both sides is slowly getting better. But a win is a win.

 

Holy Cross' offense went 3 and out on their first 3 possessions. Beechwood picked up one first down then punted, then had a shotgun center snap hit off the man in motion for a fumble on the first play of their second possession. Finally on their third drive the Tigers scored, QB Kyle Fieger hitting WR Max Shover on a 7 yard TD pass, a great catch by Shover. German kicked the extra point and the Tigers led 7-0 with 1:04 to go in the first quarter.

 

The Indians decided that their best hope was to give the ball to Jalen Beal. For the rest of the game, Beal ran the ball on perhaps 85% of their offensive plays. Beal moved the ball downfield and then scored on an 8 yard TD run, Scott kicked the extra point and with 8:54 to go in the half we were tied at 7. Beechwood responded on their next drive. Fieger hit Shover again on a TD pass, this time from 2 yards out, the XP was no good and it was 13-7 with 4:58 left in the half. Holy Cross kept handing it to Beal, including converting on 4th and 2 from their own 48. But they tried a pass play and Beechwood's Jeremy Burns intercepted the pass and returned to the 25. Beechwood took advantage with Fieger hitting Burns on a 4 yard TD pass with 26 seconds to go in the half. Sletto added the XP and the Tigers had a 20-7 halftime lead.

 

Beechwood's Brett Slusher returned the second half kickoff 68 yards for a TD, Sletto added the XP and just like that the Tigers led 27-7. Holy Cross went 3 and out on their first two drives of the second half. The Indians had a good defensive stand and stopped the Tigers first drive of the half on downs. However, the Tigers scored on their second offensive possession of the half on a 14 yard TD pass from Fieger to FB Brett Finck and Sletto's XP made it 34-7 with 5:13 to go in the third quarter. That was your final score.

 

The rest of the game was Beal running the ball for Holy Cross. The Indians managed a couple good drives. They had first and goal on one drive but the Tigers kept them out of the end zone. Beechwood ran the ball mostly to use clock and work on their running game.

 

Beal is a very tough, hard runner with good moves and speed and was the player of the game for Holy Cross. Beechwood's Devon Everett was named defensive player of the game. Joe Studer had a very good game on both sides of the ball and was very good on punt returns. Fieger looked good at QB and was the Tiger player of the game.

 

The Tigers have more work to do if they want to compete with Franklin County next week.

Edited September 14, 201313 yr by EyeOfTheTiger

Final per the scoreboard.

This game was closer than the score shows, IMO.

 

When HC had the ball: they were determined to give the ball to Beal and wear down the tigers defense. The Indians actually had some success at this, the tigers 6 or 7 d-linemen that they rotated in were looking tired by half. However beechwoods secondary stopped covering the Indians receivers all together at times and only played the run leaving open receivers that hc didn't take advantage of, this could have made this game Alot closer. HC must develope some sort of passing game to at least try and keep teams honest.

 

When Beechwood had the ball: the tigers offense seems to be a work in progress the qb needs to be a better Passer from the pocket, but he is dangerous when rolling out which was the case tonight. Three times hc was beat in the red zone by the tigers who ran the exact same play. They would fake a hand-off roll the qb out, which would suck up the Indians secondary leaving a wide open Beechwood receiver coming across the back of the end zone. This play combined with a botched kickoff by the Indians allowed for the tigers to put up points and hold off the Indians for the win.

The Tigers are still showing their lack of experience. They are very inconsistent, but they are getting better. The coaches made some nice adjustments. I like Finck at fullback. With the offensive line still trying to find some rhythm, having a big body at fullback to lead block is a good idea. Based on what I saw tonight, I think we may see Studer running the ball a little more. He is very quick to the hole and runs very hard. Fieger made some nice reads and throws tonight. The defense looked better. They did a better job tackling on a hard guy to bring down in Beal. Finck at LB helped the defense. Studer and Everett made a lot of tackles. McKown had some nice plays. The defense is getting there.

Recap attached:

 

Holy Cross Indians at Beechwood Tigers High School Football on Friday, September 13, 2013 9/13/2013 7:30:00 PM | HS Game Center - Live High School Sports Scores, Statistics and News.

Game was much closer than the final on the scoreboard, for supposedly being down HC did a nice job tonight and on their scoring drive shoved it right down BW's throat. BW needs to find a way to jell a little more quickly or it is going to be a long ride home next week from Franklin County.