Nevada Tigers win second straight, take down Butler

By Eric Wade

Herald-Tribune

BUTLER, Mo. -- The Nevada Tigers varsity football team headed back out on the road to take on the Butler Bears at Deaton-Thomas field in search of their second consecutive victory.

The Tigers came into the game with retribution as a motivator as the Bears came to Logan Field in Nevada last year and left with an upset victory.

Head coach Jack Duda's Bears came into Friday night with a record of 0-2 in the 2009 season, looking for their first victory of the year in their home opener. The Tigers had just come off of a solid performance at Fort Scott High School in their second game of the year, as they dashed their cross-state rivals' hopes of a season opening victory at home and went into Friday's contest hoping to ride that high and keep the momentum on their side with a victory.

That was exactly what the Tigers found a way to do, coming from behind in the fourth quarter to take a 27-22 win.

"There were some things we did good in the first half. We kind of sputtered at times in that second quarter and third quarter, but in that fourth quarter, we just found a way," head coach Jay Fleeman said. "The guys up front really wore them down, we were able to run the football and make them make some adjustments. Getting that running game going was the key to our victory."

Friday night's game was the second time in three years that the Tigers visited Deaton-Thomas Field. In the previous meeting in Butler, the Tigers had marked difficulty holding on to the ball as they fumbled on nine different occasions -- losing four of them.

Despite those struggles, however, the Tigers still brought home the victory by a final score of 22-10.

Those ball control struggles were far from the minds of the Tigers early in Friday's contest as they took the opening kickoff and quickly mounted an eight play, 72-yard touchdown drive to take an early 7-0 lead. As they did in the game at Fort Scott, Nevada's offensive line took over Friday's contest early, opening up huge holes in the Butler offense on nearly every play, allowing the Tigers to move the ball nearly at will on the ground.

That strong performance also gave quarterback Austin Baldwin more than enough time to sit back in the pocket and find his receivers.

The Tigers' defensive line didn't enjoy nearly as much success early in the game as Butler's running game overpowered the Nevada's defense, marching ball down the field with relative ease. The Tigers were finally able to stop the Butler running game as the Bears made it inside the Nevada 5 yard line, but were unable to keep the Bears out of the end zone.

With 3 minutes to go in the first quarter, quarterback Austin Hamilton was forced to throw the ball for the first time in the game, completing a 6-yard pass to Dirk Diehl to tie the game at 7-7.

Nevada's defense continued to struggle with the Butler running game through the remainder of the first half as the Bears were continually able to move the ball nearly at will. The Tigers did get a big break near the end of the first quarter, however, as a 75-yard touchdown run by Shawn Brakey was called back due to an illegal block in the back.

Nevada won the field position game through the remainder of the opening half and took advantage of it midway through the second quarter. The Tigers continued to march the ball down the field at will before Jordan Herren scored his first touchdown of the season on a 15-yard run with 8:37 to go in the half.

The Nevada offense seemed to finally be able to maintain the Butler running game as the Bears continued to move down the field, but had to get their yardage in much smaller chunks. That changed with 4:26 to go in the half, however, as Diehl took a sweep play around the left side of the Nevada defense for a 20 yard touchdown to make it 14-13 in favor of the Bears.

Both offenses went almost completely stagnant for most of the remainder of the half, trading punts to take the game into the half with the Bears holding their slim, one-point lead at 14-13.

The Tigers were able to put together a strong drive near the end of the second quarter, however, as they opened up the playbooks with a little bit of trickery as Tyler Dobson threw a 38-yard pass to Baldwin.

The Tigers were unable to convert on that drive, however, as the officials started the clock before the snap following an incomplete pass, thus causing time to run out after Baldwin ran the ball down to the 2 on the final play of the half. Tiger players and coaches argued the call while the entire Butler sideline cleared the field, but to no avail as the Bears took a 14-13 lead into the locker room.

The Bears quickly began to take over the game offensively to open the second half as they continued to march the ball down the field at will. The Bears eventually capped off a 13 play, 67-yard drive with a short touchdown run by Diehl with 5:13 to go in the third quarter.

The drive took up more than half of the quarter and the Bears opened up a 22-13 lead after a two-point conversion, putting the Tigers in a nine-point hole. With that nine-point deficit, the Tigers were left with relatively little time to come back and score twice to have a chance at winning the game.

The Tigers answered quickly as they took just 4:31 to take the ball 51 yards down field for the touchdown on a drive that was capped off by Herren's second touchdown of the game on a 7-yard run. A two-point conversion quickly got the Tigers back into the game, down by just on at 22-21 with 42 seconds to go in the third quarter.

The Tigers finally completed the comeback with just 2:19 to go in the game after Baldwin ended a 49-yard drive with a 1-yard quarterback sneak into the end zone. A missed two-point conversion left Nevada with a 27-22 lead as Butler took over with no timeouts left.

Baldwin helped his own cause once again with an interception with 1:45 to go that stopped Butler's final drive and secured the Tigers' 27-22 victory.

"Defensively we had some assignment mistakes and some communication things, but in that second half, that's the key to the game, we made the right adjustments and the boys buckled down and played some good defense," Fleeman said.

With that win, the Tigers improved their record to 2-1 on the season and are now set to make their return to Logan Field next Friday night as they host the Pleasant Hill Roosters.