LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
PARIS – Even though the calendar reads early October, it felt like the fourth of July on Friday, Oct. 11 at Tiger Stadium.
From the pregame display during player introductions to the offensive explosions on the field, the Tigers from both Olney and Paris put on quite a performance for both sets of fans. Once the smoke had cleared and the final horn sounded, the Tigers from Olney remained undefeated on the season with a 64-36 win over the home-standing Tigers of Paris. Olney improves to 7-0 (5-0 in the Little Illini Conference) while Paris falls to 2-5 (2-3) on the year.
For fans of sustained, clock-eating drives, Friday night’s game might not have been for you. Of the 14 total touchdowns scored on Friday night, nearly half of those were scored on drives of five plays or less. Both teams combined for just over 1,000 yards of offense with eight touchdowns coming on plays of 30 yards or more.
Olney won the toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff. Three plays later, Gavyn Cothern scored the first of his six touchdowns on an 11-yard run to give the visitors a 6-0 lead with 10:36 left in the opening quarter. On their first possession of the game, Paris drove inside the Olney 30-yard line but turned the ball over on downs after failing to convert on fourth and long. In their longest drive of the night, Olney needed seven plays to cover 69 yards when Dirks Weiler found the end zone from two yards out. The two-point conversion was successful and Olney held a 14-0 lead with 2:41 left in the first.
After bobbling the ensuing kickoff inside his five-yard line, Madox Hutchings sprinted up the middle of the field, cut to his right and raced his way inside Olney territory to the 41-yard line. Three plays later, the lead was cut in half as Mason Byrnes slashed his way through the heart of the Olney defense for a 40-yard touchdown. Garret Rigdon added the extra point to make the score 14-7 with 1:07 left in the first period.
With the home crowd still buzzing from the touchdown run from Byrnes, Olney gave the ball right back to the Tigers as Koen Brinkerhoff forced a fumble from Weiler that was recovered by Hutchings, who returned the ball to the Olney 33-yard line. For the second straight possession, the Tigers needed just a couple of plays to find the end zone as Byrnes outran the Olney defense for a 30-yard score to tie the score at 14-14 with two seconds left in the first.
Things settled down in the second quarter as both defenses found their footing early on. With 4:48 left in the second quarter, Cothern scored on a 23-yard run to give Olney the lead 20-14. That lead lasted all of 12 seconds though as the Tigers reached into their bag of tricks to tie the score. On the first play of the next drive, coach Jeremy Clodfelder used his Rogers-to-Rogers-to-Rogers connection for the first time all season. Quarterback Drew Rogers threw a backward pass to Brayden Rogers, who found a wide-open Dawson Rogers for a 64-yard touchdown to tie things up at 20-20 following a blocked extra point. Olney fumbled the football after driving into Tiger territory with defensive end Carter Eastham recovering at mid-field. Unfortunately, the Tigers could not muster any more magic and the teams headed to the locker room tied at 20-20.
Paris received the football to start the second half with all of the momentum swinging their way. Facing fourth and one at their own 44-yard line, Rogers was stopped short of the marker and the Tigers turned the ball over on downs. Two plays later, Weiler scampered 40-yards for the go-ahead touchdown and just like that, Paris trailed 28-20. In fact, Olney scored 30 unanswered points coming out of the locker room to extend their lead to 50-20 at the 9:46 mark of the fourth quarter.
Paris finally found the end zone with 6:54 left in the game when Rogers threw a pass to Rigdon, who made an outstanding play on the ball, for a 40-yard touchdown reception. Rogers called his own number on the two-point conversion to make the score 50-28 with 6:50 left in the game. Olney would add two more long touchdowns with a Paris touchdown sandwiched in between as Rogers pushed his way in from one yard out with 4:25 left in the game.
While Paris won the turnover battle 3-1, they clearly lost the penalty phase of the game as they were flagged 11 times for 120 yards, including four unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and an ejection. Drew Rogers completed 13 of 23 passes for 206 yards and a touchdown. Brayden Rogers completed three of six passes for 77 yards and a touchdown as well.
Byrnes was once again the workhorse for the Tiger offense as he amassed 135 yards on 18 carries and two scores. Rogers carried the ball 11 times for 21 yards, Rigdon added 37 yards on five totes, Hutchings added 15 on a pair of touches, Andre Calhoun carried once for five, Carter Crippes added 17 on his only touch and Brayden Rogers carried once for five.
Dawson Rogers led the receiving corps with five grabs for 133 yards and a touchdown. Rigdon hauled in four catches for 51 yards and a score, Byrnes caught a pair of passes for 61 yards, Crippes nabbed two catches for 30 yards, Hutchings caught one ball for three yards and Karic Vitale had one catch for four yards.
The Paris defense allowed 549 yards rushing to Olney with both Weiler and Cothern each gaining over 200 yards.
Paris will celebrate Senior night on Friday, Oct. 18 as they host the Robinson Maroons with kickoff set for 7 p.m.