Cleveland Hts. Oh. – With the Tigers clinging to a 4-point lead, star RB, Marquise Davis found a crease and went 53 yards for his 6th TD of the nights, as the Cleveland Heights Tigers defeated the Medina Bees 62-52.
In one of the most up and down games I’ve seen all year, the Tigers answered, dominated, and then survived all in the same game. Davis was the star of the show, but this was a complete team effort. There was special teams contributions, defensive contributions, and in the first half, it looked like this could turn into a route. Give credit to the Bees, they played defense pretty well in the second half, but in the end… Davis was too much.
The game started with a quick 3 and out for Heights. The Bees took advantage and with their empty backfield attack, QB Danny Stoddard went to work and threw a TD to Nathan Angus from the 21, to get the scoring started. The Tigers then found running creases, as Davis ran for his first TD from 37 yards out as the Tigers tied the game at 7. Stoddard then went right back down the field and found Jack Wojciak, for a 15-yard TD pass. The PAT was Blocked by the Tigers John Gordon Jr., the first of his many contributions. But the Bees led 13-7. That was the last lead for the Bees. Tigers QB Ammaar Lakes ran for 49 yards and the score putting Cleveland Hts. up 14-13. And the Tigers special teams made its second huge play. Ethan Golden, in his first game of the season due to injury, forced a fumble on the kickoff, and the Tigers got the ball right back and the Tigers offense got the ball to the 1-yard line, and Lakes punched it in. Tigers were up 21-13.
This is when the defense stepped up. Jay’Vier Kerr intercepted Stoddard and the Tigers got the ball back. The Tigers got a big 50-yard run from Gordon but ended up turning the ball over on downs. But no worries, Gordon Jr. intercepted Stoddard and this time it was a pick 6 as Gordon Jr. found the end zone and increased the Tigers lead to 28-13. But Danny Stoddard and the Bees wouldn’t go away. Stoddard found Austin Knowles who made an acrobatic catch and ran 33 yards for a score as Medina pulled within 28-19. But once again, special teams were special as John Gordon took the squib kickoff 50 yards, to set up a Davis 19-yard TD run to increase the lead 35-19. Then Heights decided to squib kick the ball themselves and came up with the ball. With the short field, the Tigers moved the ball and set up Davis for a 5-yard TD run to put Hts. up 42-19. But, again, the Bees would not go away as Stoddard found Angus again, this time for a 53-yard TD pass. Then Stoddard found Wojciak for a 15-yard TD and Medina closed the gap 42-32. A TD run from the Tigers Lakes, had the Tigers go into halftime with a 49-32 lead. Yes, all this scoring was in the first half.
In the second half, Medina’s defense tightened up. Stoddard immediately found Angus for a TD pass coming out of halftime and then found Knowles for a 60-yard slant to pull the Bees within 49-46. The score stayed that way for a while as both defenses tightened up until Davis found a crease and went 48 yards for his 5th TD of the night. With the Tigers up now 56-46, the Bees needed to score in the fourth to stay within striking distance. And they did just that as Stoddard who had been doing it through the air all game, led the Bees to the one-yard line and kept it himself for a TD to pull the Bees within 4. Another blocked PAT by John Gordon Jr, who was all over the place for the entire game kept the score 56-52. And Davis closed it out with a 53-yard TD, his 6th of the night and the Tigers closed out the Bees 62-52.
Davis finished the night with 361 yards on the ground and 6TD’s. Danny Stoddard threw 7 TD’s and also had a TD on the ground for 8 total TD’s, but also threw 5 picks in one of the more bizarre stat lines I have seen. Cleveland Hts. moved to 7-1(6-0 in the GCC) while Medina moves to 5-3 (3-2). This is back-to-back weeks that Marquise Davis has recorded 6 rushing TD’s, as he has 16 TDs over the last three weeks combined as he makes a bid for Mr. Football in Ohio.
The Tigers take on Euclid next week while the Bees host Shaker Heights.
Recent Comments