October 11, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
After riding a five-game win streak to open the football season, the DCHS Tigers have lost the last two games, both of them to region opponents in Stone Memorial and Macon County. With the window of opportunity closing for the Tigers to make the state-playoffs, a win tonight at Cumberland County is huge.
DeKalb County (5-2, 1-2) will face a Cumberland County team with a record of 2-5 overall and 0-4 in the region. Kick-off tonight (Friday) will be at 7 p.m. from Crossville and WJLE will have LIVE coverage.
Last week, the Tigers watched a 27-14 lead in the third period evaporate into a 49-27 Macon County victory.
“We knew what kind of game it was going to be going into it,” said Tiger Coach Steve Trapp. “Macon County is a really good football team and we feel like we are really a good football team. It was a tale of two halves again last week. It was the second week in a row that we took a lead in at halftime. We really did a good job in the first half of taking advantage of some of their miscues. That’s part of the game. That all turned around on us in the second half where they took big advantage of some of our miscues but then we also were not able to bend our backs defensively to get them off the field. Its been disappointing the last two weeks. We definitely believe we have a quality football team and we understand we can play better,” said Coach Trapp.
Although the Tigers have had success with Cumberland County in recent years, they can’t just count on history to repeat itself tonight.
“For them it’s a team record wise in the last few years, where they don’t want to be but we have had some battles with them even with that,” said Coach Trapp “They are setting there at 2-5 and if you look at and compare scores people can get perceptions but for us there’s a way we have to do things and prepare. It’s called the process of work. That’s on the practice field, film review, and its in our hearts and minds as well and it doesn’t matter who we are playing. We can’t look at records and think we are playing a team that’s won a bunch of games and be shaking in our boots or look at a team that has not won a bunch of games and feel over confident. We have been telling our guys all year that our confidence should not come from our record but with how we do things. This group has done a good job with that. We have good leadership, great hearts, and great minds but I think everybody in this program would say we have to play better football than we have the last two weeks,” said Coach Trapp.
With three games left on the schedule, the Tigers probably have to win out to make the playoffs and DC still have to face two of the region’s best teams against White County (5-2, 3-1) on October 25 and Upperman (7-0, 4-0) on October 31. Both games will be played in Smithville.
“This is a seven-team region and there are five really good football teams in it and we are one of those that deserves the right to be in the playoffs but unfortunately there will be one left out,” said Coach Trapp. “We have to win out. I have said since the beginning of the season there’s going to be a really good football team that does not make the playoffs from this region and we really hope that is not us,” he said.
WJLE’s Pre-Game shows begin with “Coach to Coach” at 5:00 p.m. to repeat Saturday morning at 9 a.m. featuring former UT assistant coach Doug Matthews with Tennessee Titans Radio Broadcaster Dave McGinnis and broadcaster Larry Stone talking Tennessee and SEC football.
Coach to Coach is followed by Murphy’s Matchups at 6:00 p.m., a look at Tennessee High School Football from Murphy Fair with commentary on games and coaches’ interviews.
“Tiger Talk” airs at 6:30 p.m. featuring Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger football Captains Jordan Parker, Ty Webb, and Andrew Dakas.
Kick-off is at 7:00 p.m. with play-by-play coverage on WJLE from the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor and Luke Willoughby. Listen LIVE on WJLE AM 1480/FM 101.7 and LIVE Streaming at www.wjle.com.