Nevada Tigers football drops season opener

HOLDEN -- The Nevada Tigers football team got its first taste of regular-season action Friday night, taking on the Holden Eagles.

The Tigers came into the contest hoping for a bit of revenge as Holden was one of three teams to beat Nevada last season. The two squads opened last season at Logan Field and Holden scored the winning touchdown with just 6 seconds left in the contest, taking the victory by a final score of 33-28.

Holden went on to finish the season with a record of 12-3 and made it to the Class 2 state semifinals, before being knocked off by eventual state championship runner-up Blair Oaks, while the Tigers finished 8-3, losing to Harrisonville in the district semifinals. Last year's loss was the third in as many seasons for Nevada against Holden, leading to even more motivation for the Tigers to take the victory.

The star of last year's game for Holden was senior Max Mickey. Mickey was able to drive the ball through the Nevada offense nearly at will throughout the night and ultimately finished last year's contest with 172 yards on 26 carries.

Despite not having Mickey at their disposal, the Eagles had little trouble getting past Nevada for the third straight year, taking the victory by a final score of 26-6.

Though the Tigers didn't have to deal with Mickey again in Friday's contest, Holden still didn't have much trouble moving the ball against the Tigers' defense on the game's opening drive. Just as Tigers head coach Erik Yoakam suspected, the Eagles came out with a power running attack early in the contest and were able to move the ball quickly onto the Tigers' side of the field.

The Tigers were eventually able to put a stop to the march as the Eagles attempted to deviate from their usual running attack. That strategy didn't work out the first time, ultimately resulting in a turnover on downs.

That certainly wasn't the case on the second drive of the night for the Eagles, however, as Holden got pinned inside its own 10-yard line to start the drive. Quarterback Reece Crabtree didn't seem to mind, however, as he orchestrated a near-perfect drive that ultimately ate a substantial amount of time off of the clock.

Running back Chris O'Neill capped off the drive with 11 minutes, 55 seconds left in the first half as he took the ball 2 yards right through the Tigers' defense for the touchdown. The Eagles missed the ensuing extra point, taking a 6-0 lead.

As the minutes wore on, Holden began to have some trouble holding onto the ball. Despite fumbling the ball three different times on a single drive, however, the Eagles ultimately kept possession.

It wasn't long before Crabtree made the Tigers pay for letting the Eagles keep the ball as he capped off what turned out to be another strong drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Coleman Anstine with 3:50 left in the half. A failed two-point conversion on the ensuing play gave the Eagles a 12-0 lead.

The Tigers were never really able to get much of anything going in the opening half and that was where the offense ended for both squads. Holden finished a dominant first half with the ball and ultimately took a comfortable, two-touchdown lead into the locker room.

Holden was clearly the better team in every aspect in the opening half. With more than 190 yards of total offense, the Eagles had a clear advantage on offense, but the Holden defense was just as dominant, holding the Tigers to just 11 total yards.

O'Neill was the most significant weapon at Crabtree's disposal when he wasn't doing things himself. O'Neill finished the opening half with 10 carries for 72 yards, followed by Austin Tevis, who finished with 46 yards on eight carries.

As for Crabtree, he finished the half 7-for-11 in passing for 72 yards.

Quarterback Alex Payne was the most significant offensive producer in the opening two quarters for the Tigers. He finished the half with six carries for nine yards and completed one pass for 1 yard.

The Tigers finally found some offensive life as the second half began. On the very first play of the half, Taylor Manes took the ball 40 yards right through the Eagles' defense.

The Tigers weren't able to capitalize, however, as the drive stalled out just outside the Holden 30. The Eagles defense ultimately stood firm, taking over on downs and keeping the Tigers off the board.

The Tigers got the offense going once again on their next drive, but that was stopped short as well on the first turnover of the game, after Payne put the ball on the ground.

A scary moment came for the Tigers late in the third quarter as Jacob Herdliska went down with what appeared to be a right leg injury. Herdliska was tended to for several minutes on the field before being loaded onto a stretcher and taken off the field to a waiting ambulance.

The severity of Herdliska's injury wasn't immediately known, but it appeared as though he went down holding his right knee.

With just under 10 minutes to go in the game, Tevis tacked on the final score of the night for Holden. He capped off what was a very impressive drive for the Eagles with a 22-yard touchdown run in which he simply smashed his way through the Tigers' defense to make it 19-0 with 9:36 to go.

The Tigers finally started to get some offensive production going on the ensuing drive, but were once again stopped short as Payne threw his only interception of the night on a desperation fourth-down play.

From that point on, Holden went into clock management mode, but when Manes coughed up the ball for Nevada's third turnover of the night, Holden took advantage of a very short field, taking the ball the 5 yards they needed to tack on Holden's final touchdown of the contest. That score made it 26-0 with 2:25 left.

The Tigers were just barely able to avoid the shutout as Payne came up with the biggest play of the night for the Tigers with less than a minute and a half to play. That big play came on a 42-yard touchdown pass to Johnathan Ireland with 1:19 to go in the contest to make it 26-6.

That was where the offense ended for both squads and Holden ultimately held on to take the 20-point victory.

With the loss, the Tigers started the season with a record of 0-1 and will be back in action next week, heading back out on the road once again to take on Willard. Kickoff in that contest is scheduled for 7 p.m., at Willard High School.