RINGGOLD, Ga. – On the way to their most brutally physical loss of the season, the Ringgold Tigers had losses of another kind pile up at an alarming rate Friday night.
If Sonoraville’s 49-21 win wasn’t painful enough to deal with, the Tigers must go into the vital subregion part of their schedule not knowing when ace running back Dee King, defensive stalwart Braxton Stewart and rock-solid lineman Sam Kennedy would be good to go.
King, who was scheduled to play every down Friday, was a particular concern to coach Robert Akins.
“His would be a devastating loss, offensively and defensively,” Akins acknowledged. “We know it’s a lateral ligament, and it was apparently something that began bothering him last week.”
King did not return to the sideline after halftime and will be evaluated today. Stewart suffered a recurrence of a separated shoulder, Akins said, while Kennedy had his ankled rolled up on.
“We knew it would be a physical game,” Akins said. “They were ready for it. We thought we were ready for it, too.”
With Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe the first of four vital subregion games ahead, the coach promised an extensive reworking of his defensive personnel.
“We know it’s not the scheme,” he said.
But the Tigers got off to a brief, exciting fast start. Electing to receive as has been their fashion in 2016, they marched 76 yards on 11 plays, overcoming a holding penalty and finding the end zone with some difficulty on a King 1-yard smash. In the previous two plays, Kibler was stopped cold from inside the 1 as well.
The Tigers’ Andre Tarver, who had an amazing game against Sonoraville last year, picked off a Patrick Moore pass just three plays later, setting the Tigers up deep in Phoenix territory. But a low snap led to a critical loss, and the snap on Garrett Davis’ field-goal attempt sailed like a bullet 35 yards upself before a Tiger could fall on it.
This Sonoraville team is an opportunistic one and took just three plays to tie the game on Moore’s 26-yard scramble at the PAT.
The first quarter nearly ended with a bang, but Drew Starks’ 54-yard touchdown catch was negated by a personal foul on a Tigers lineman. They had to punt on that drive, but on the next the Tigers found themselves with a first-and-goal call after pass interference covering Tarver. Two incompletions and a desperation fourth-down pass to Tarver failed to cover the final 6 yards. Sonoraville took over on downs and needed only three plays to go 93 yards for the go-ahead score.
Senior Camron Keith did the honors on a 64-yard pass reception, Sonoraville’s only completion of the first half. The Tigers then fumbled the kickoff, and Tristan Key scored on a 39-yard run with less than a minute to play in the half. Ringgold, with King on the sideline, had an answer in a remarkable two-minute drive, Kibler hitting four passes for 63 yards – three to Tarver, including a 6-yard TD strike with only 3.8 seconds left in the half. Tarver’s remarkable night would end with 13 receptions for 145 yards and two scores.
There would be no second half rally, however. Moore, a cat-quick senior, finished off the Phoenix drives in the third quarter with scoring runs of 5 and 16 yards. He set up the second himself with a 37-yard run after a gimmick end-around pass picked up the same amount on the previous drive.
The one-two punch by the Phoenix controlled the clock down the stretch. Tristan Key ran for 184 yards on just 16 carries, and Moore picked up 151 yards to go with three touchdowns.
For Ringgold (2-3), sophomore Kibler threw for 339 yards and ran for 49 and had yet another game without an interception. Mac Brower caught eight passes for 124 yards.
Contact David Jenkins at sports@timesfreepress.com