JASPER, Tenn. – Meigs County senior Da’Quawn Tatum told his football coach at practice during the week he would be ready to step up and shut down Marion County’s attack.
Tatum and the Class 2A’s top-ranked Tigers did exactly that as they remained perfect at regular season’s end and won the Region 3 title – their fifth straight league championship – with a 20-0 shutout of previously unbeaten Marion on Friday night. The host Warriors had no answer for a tough-nosed defensive line that overpowered their offensive line and chased down ball carriers to the outside edge.
“We played with power and really blew things up,” the 6-foot-1, 250-pound Tatum said. “We saw before this game where everyone was picking Marion to win, and it really got us heated. We believed in ourselves and the way we play football, and we came in here and took the game over from the start. This is a great team, and I have no doubt we are one of the top two in the state.”
Ben Smith warned fourth-ranked Marion (8-1, 4-1) earlier in the week via an interview that the Tigers (9-0, 5-0) were coming to hit them in the mouth early and often. The senior running back and defensive lineman backed up his words by carrying defenders with him for 37 rushing yards on his team’s opening drive.
Smith also put the Warriors away when he made a fantastic diving catch in the middle of the end zone for a 14-yard score on a pass from Logan Carroll on fourth-and-3. The Tigers led 20-0 with 4:28 left in the third quarter and would not budge the rest of the way.