October 3, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County Tigers will be on a mission Friday night to topple the undefeated Livingston Academy Wildcats on the road.
Both teams and Macon County are still undefeated in the region but Livingston Academy is 6-0 (2-0) while the DC Tigers and Macon County Tigers are each 3-3 (1-0)
Tiger Coach Steve Trapp says his team played well last week in a 41-10 homecoming win over Cannon County and hopes that momentum carries over to Friday night’s game at Livingston.
“I really think it was a very clean performance last week all the way around. Anytime offensively you never punt in a game then you are doing some good things and to be able to score that many times without getting turnovers that means your offense is being pretty efficient and executing. Having that many opportunities is also saying that your defense is turning the ball over as far as three and outs and making the other team punt. Special teams had some good things happen as well so in all three phases of the game I thought we played exceptionally well,” said Coach Trapp.
As for Livingston Academy, Coach Trapp said “offensively they look very similar to what we have been over the last decade with a lot of receivers on the field with the football in the air a whole lot. Again its about fitting up on the passing game with everybody understanding their reads and keys. They (Wildcats) are going to make some plays so I think tackling and open field is huge. Yards after catch we want to make sure we limit those and make sure our eyes are right and that we are playing extremely hard up front that can help our back end. It’s a two way street. Our back end can help our D-line and our D-line can help our coverage. Defensively when they have played us they have always tended to have had a whole different defensive package going from a four man to a three man so we’re expecting everything they have shown on tape plus some. Our guys the last two weeks have handled a defense being put in front of them that we didn’t see on tape. Grundy and Cannon County both had a different look in front of us than what we saw on all the tape we had but we have an offensive team that gets a lot of different looks so there is not a whole lot we haven’t seen and haven’t been exposed to but again its recognizing what you have in front of you and getting the job done the best as possible,” said Coach Trapp.
Livingston Academy has beaten Westmoreland 35-2, Cookeville 28-21, Cumberland County 42-0, Upperman 10-7, Stone Memorial 42-7, and Smith County 38-13.
DeKalb County has defeated Stone Memorial 33-0, Grundy County 49-12, and Cannon County 41-10 and lost to Warren County 35-21, Upperman 35-0, and Watertown 42-20.
Kick-off will be Friday night at 7 p.m.
WJLE’s pre-game shows begin with “Coach to Coach” at 5 p.m. featuring former coaches Doug Matthews, Dave McGinnis, and broadcaster Larry Stone.
“Murphy’s Matchups” airs at 6 p.m. featuring the Guru of Tennessee High School Football Murphy Fair.
“Tiger Talk” begins at 6:30 p.m. featuring DCHS Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger Football Players David Bradford, Axel Aldino, and Desmond Nokes. John Pryor, the Voice of the Tigers, is the host of the program.
WJLE’s “LIVE” play by play coverage starts at 7 p.m. with 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.