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Tigers win OT thriller
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Cody Davies drags down an Elkhart ball carrier earlier this season. The Tigers won their third game of the season Friday night after going winless last season. Mark Sangenito photo
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Jackson scores four touchdowns as Malakoff beats Italy, 50-48
MALAKOFF – Despite all the gaudy offensive numbers, in the end it came down to defense.
The Malakoff Tigers beat Italy Friday night in overtime, 50-48, when Josh Crockett and Jackson Blacketer swarmed the Gladiators’ Justin Hayes on a failed two-point conversion attempt.
The win improves the Tigers’ record to 3-1 on the year.
The two teams played a relatively quite first half during which Italy broke out to a 13-0 lead before Malakoff came back to go in front 14-13 at the half.
In the second half, however, the two teams exploded for a combined 71 points.
The teams traded touchdowns throughout the second half, taking a 34-34 tie into the final moments of regulation.
The Tigers thought they had won the game when Blacketer scored on a 1-yard blast with 1:04 remaining, and then ran in the two-point conversion attempt to take a 42-34 lead.
Blacketer led the Tigers with 154 yards rushing and scored four touchdowns, three of them on 1-yard runs. On all of those short touchdowns, plus two two-point conversions, his fullback was big defensive tackle Damien Wilson, who road-graded the way for Blacketer.
Italy came back however, and on the final play of regulation Jasenio Anderson found Heath Clemons with a 16-yard pass for a touchdown. Needing a two-point conversion of their own to tie, the Gladiators were able to run in the conversion.
Anderson was Mr. Everything for Italy, scoring three touchdowns on the ground and throwing for four others.
Malakoff set up the defense’s late heroics in overtime by scoring on the third play of its possession on an 18-yard Blacketer scamper. Blacketer ran in the conversion to keep the pressure on Italy. In the end, that conversion turned out to be the difference.
Blacketer wasn’t the only one to turn up big for Malakoff. Cornelius Richardson scored on two long runs of 49 and 38 yards respectively. Richardson had 122 yards rushing for the Tigers.
Bernard Hall also scored for the Tigers, finding the end zone on a 25-yard run.
The 50 points put up by Malakoff was the most by the Tigers since the sixth game of 2006 when Malakoff beat Blooming Grove, 54-27, according to Tiger historian Benny Rogers.
Defensively, the Tigers forced Italy into a pair of turnovers, both interceptions by Marquise Dowell.
The Tigers are scheduled to open up district play next week on the road at Mildred. Kick off is slated for 7:30 p.m.
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