Tucker County Falls to Southern at Home 26-13

By Dave Helmick
TuckerCountySports.Com

PARSONS – The Mt. Lions hosted Southern Garrett last Friday September 30th. Tucker County led 6-0 at the half, but Southern came out running in the second half and outscored the Mt. Lions 26-7 the rest of the game to take the victory 26-13.
The first quarter showed good defense as neither team could sustain drives to get points and the score was 0-0 after one quarter of play. Eddie Kachmarek recovered a fumble by Southern in the second quarter on the Rams 36, but the Mt. Lions could not capitalize as the drive stalled at the Southern 13. The Rams then punted the ball back to Tucker County and they put their offense to work. The Mt. Lions then capped the drive on a 2 yard touchdown run by Cole Rapp with a little over 5 minutes left in the second. The 2 point conversion was no good to make the score 6-0 Tucker County. Southern and Tucker County could not manage anymore points the rest of the first half to keep the halftime score at 6-0 Mt. Lions.
Southern came out fired up in the third as they forced Tucker County to punt after one first down. Then the Rams went to work as they only needed 4 plays before they scored on a 48 yard touchdown run with 7:21 left in the third quarter. The PAT failed to tie the score at 6-6. Tucker County then took the next possession down to the Southern 34 before an interception by the Rams gave them the ball at their own 14 yard line. Southern then would strike again on a 67 yard touchdown run to push the score to 12-6 with 4:37 left in the third quarter. The turnover bug would bite the Mt. Lions again as Southern recovers the Tucker County fumble at the Mt. Lions 12 yard line. Then 5 plays later the Rams would score on a 10 yard touchdown run with 3:03 left in the third to take a 20-6 lead after three quarters.
Tucker County would fight back on their next drive as they put together a 68 yard 14 play drive that was capped off on a Brett Reall 1 yard touchdown run with 8:01 left in the fourth quarter. The PAT kick was good to cut the Rams lead to 20-13. Southern then would respond with another big play on a fourth down play as the runner broke away from the pile to race 44 yards for the touchdown to up the Rams lead to 26-13 with 6:20 left in the game. Tucker County then drove the ball down to the Rams 25, but they were unable to convert on a fourth down play. Southern then ran out the clock to claim their first victory of the season 26-13.
Brett Reall led Tucker County with 12 carries for 73 yards rushing and Luke Poling added 16 carries and 66 yards rushing. Poling also had 46 yards passing for Tucker County. Southern was led by Alec Horner with 201 yards rushing and Southern outgained the Mt. Lions in total yards 298 to 246.
Tucker County(2-4) will host #1 East Hardy this Friday October 7th, kickoff is set for 7:30pm. Audio coverage will be provided by WELK 94.7fm, pregame starts at 7pm with kickoff at 7:30pm. For more Tucker County Sports info visit TuckerCountySports.Com