Senior Day Performance Prepares Tigers for Macon Showdown
by: Jarrod Ficklin ‘11The Football squad had been disappointed with its lackluster performances over the past few weeks. I don’t think any Tiger player, fan, or coach was disappointed with the squad’s performance this past Saturday. The Tigers stayed perfect on Hall of Fame Weekend by dismantling the Seagulls of Salisbury University 59-14. The Senior Football Tigers did not even want to flirt with losing their last ever regular season game at Lewis C. Everett stadium, and they took matters into their own hands. The seniors went out in high style on Senior Day 2009 racking up a 31-0 lead at end of the first quarter, subsequently making a big statement going into their clash with Randolph-Macon.
With eight minutes remaining in the 1st quarter, the game was still scoreless. With two minutes remaining in the first quarter, the Tigers led 31-0. The first touchdown occurred when senior Corey Sedlar hooked up with senior Adam Gilette on a 13 yard screen pass. A little over a minute later, senior cornerback Boaz Young-el intercepted a Sean Kelly pass and returned it 31 yards for the Tigers’ touchdown. On the Seagulls first play of the next drive, senior safety Jamar Lovelace intercepted Kelly’s pass and returned it 36 yards to the Salisbury 24 yard line, setting up a David Prizzia field goal and a 17-0 lead. Less than a minute later, Sedlar hooked up with senior E.K. Smock for an 8 yard touchdown pass. The seniors certainly set the pace against Salisbury on Saturday.
The Tiger defense continued their dominance holding the Seagulls to 14 points and only 245 yards of total offense. Meanwhile, the Tiger offense got back to its usual dominant ways. Corey Sedlar was named the ODAC’s Offensive Player of the Week – the fourth time of his career – because of his career high 6 touchdown passes on Saturday. Sedlar leads the ODAC in passing yards with 2,768 and touchdown passes with 27. Hopefully Sedlar and the rest of the Tigers will provide similar results this Saturday against Randolph-Macon.
“The Game” will once again decide the ODAC Championship – the third year in a row. The Tigers are still undefeated in ODAC play, while the Yellow Jackets are 6-3 overall and 4-1 in the ODAC. Although the Jackets have a loss in the ODAC, if they beat the Tigers, they have the head to head win against Hampden-Sydney and would consequently become ODAC champs for the second year in a row.
It is important that the Tigers jump out early on the Yellow Jackets. Randolph-Macon is outscoring opponents 74-26 in the first quarter this season. Once the Jackets get up, they like to play the Time of Possession game and simply keep the ball away from the opposing offense; they are good at it too considering they’re still averaging about 4 yards per carry on the season. The good news for the Tigers is that they are outscoring opponents 112-20 in the first quarter. A big weapon the Jackets have is the ODAC’s leading yardage receiver, Earl Peoples. Peoples has 903 yards receiving on the season and is averaging 15 yards per catch. Good news for the Tigers is that their next biggest threat at receiver only has 131 yards receiving on the entire season.
The biggest challenge for the 6-3 Yellow Jackets on Saturday will not be going up against an undefeated team. Instead, the challenge will be going up against a team with the sheer motivation and determination that the Tigers have this year. Last year the 5-4 Yellow Jackets stunned the 8-1 Tigers at Lewis C. Everett Stadium, 31-21 – a memory that is implanted in each of the Football Tigers’ minds and a memory they necessarily don’t want to forget. This week, 1st Team All-ODAC center Ben Rogers wore a Randolph-Macon shirt that read “2008 ODAC Champs.” If that is not motivation enough, the back of the shirt read, “Prove It: R-MC 31 H-SC 21.” This same shirt was hanging up in the locker room all preseason. The players will already be motivated enough for the simple fact that they are playing their arch rivals. However, the players are even more determined because of that loss to Randolph-Macon last year.
The Tigers have won seven of the last eight in the series that has stretched on for 115 years, but the game that is still on their minds is last year’s loss. Hopefully this year’s rendition of “The Game” will be one in which the Tigers will provide the sting instead of the Yellow Jackets. A perfect regular season and bragging rights for the year are on the line for the Tigers when toe meets leather at 1:00 p.m. on November 14th.
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