Necks nip Troup, 34-28

The Troup defense puts heavy pressure on the White Oak quarterback.

A last-minute touchdown lifted the White Oak Roughnecks over Troup at Tiger stadium Friday, capping a back-and-forth game and a battle of offensive styles.

The game-winning score came with less than a minute and a half to play, with White Oak trailing by one point and facing a second-and-20 play from the Troup 30-yard line. Tiger defenders Daniel Dick and Cody Lepelley zeroed in on a White Oak pass, but the Troup fans' cheers turned to groans as the deflected ball fell into the hands of a Roughneck receiver who scampered in for the touchdown. The extra point sealed the win for White Oak, 34-28, and avenged last season's 20-6 Tiger win at Roughneck Stadium.

With both teams racking up over 250 yards on the ground, the difference was the White Oak passing game. The Necks completed 12 of 24 attempts for 146 yards, compared to 2-of-6 passing for the Tigers.

It looked to be a good night for the Tigers as they recovered a fumble on White Oak's opening possession and set up at the Roughneck 23- yard line. A one-two punch of Thacher Riddle for 11 yards and Der'rick Thompson in the end zone gave the Tigers an early lead. Jordan Jackson kicked the extra point, giving Troup a 7-0 advantage with less than two minutes off the clock.

Photo/Jeff Mills QB Chance Steele looks for a receiver.

On its second possession, White Oak turned the ball over on downs, going for it on fourthand six from Troup's 36-yard line. Following C.J. Deason's stop, the Tigers took over and found themselves scoring their second touchdown on just their third snap of the night.

Riddle did the honors this time, rumbling 64 yards for the touchdown. A two-point conversion gave Troup the 15-0 lead at the 9:11 mark.

White Oak settled down on its third possession and put together a near five-minute drive resulting in a 9-yard TD reception. The Necks came up short on a two-point attempt, but narrowed the Troup lead to 15-6 with 4:46 left in the first quarter.

The Tigers received a holding penalty on the kickoff and started first and 10 on their own 20- yard line. A second-down pass from QB Chance Steele to Jeremy Richardson gave the Tigers new downs on the 50-yard line, but the Tigers were forced to punt on fourth-andseven.

With a nice return, White Oak took over on its own 37 and steadily moved the ball into Tiger territory as the first quarter ended. Mixing their air and ground attacks, the Necks capped the drive with a oneyard quarterback keeper. The extra point made it 15-13 Troup's favor with 9:10 left in the first half.

Starting from their own 25, Troup put together its first real drive of the night, with Riddle, Thompson and Cody Lepelley sharing ball-handling duties.

The drive was threatened at the six-minute mark when the Tigers faced a third-and-24 situation. White Oak took the bait when the Tigers lined up with three wide receivers, leaving Riddle plenty of running room up the middle.

With a first and 10 at midfield, Thompson took the next handoff and turned up the speed to beat two White Oak pursuers for his second TD of the night. Troup missed the PAT, but strengthened its lead to 21-6 with 4:46 left in the half.

The Necks struck back, however, and gained the momentum before heading into the locker room.

White Oak started with good field position from its own 41- yard line. A couple of third-down pass completions kept the Roughneck drive alive and advanced the ball to the Tiger 28.

The Necks faked a draw play on first down, allowing the White Oak quarter back to pick up16 yards.

The Roughecks then missed two consecutive passes, the second under heavy pressure from Troup's Rony Johnson.

A third-down pass completion still left the Necks short and brought up fourth-and-four on the Tiger six-yard line. White Oak looked to pass but again faced heavy pressure, forcing the QB out of the pocket.

He picked up the first down and then punched it over from the one-yard line on the next play. White Oak missed its twopoint effort to end first-half scoring with the Tigers holding a slim lead, 21-19.

Although there was no more scoring, the half held more drama as Troup's Thompson was shaken up on a second-andfour run.

Jake Johnson cut the legs out from under a White Oak defender to give Thompson room to pick up a first down, but the Tiger sophomore was slow to get up. After a long injury delay, play resumed with 50 seconds left, and Thompson return again until the fourth quarter.

The Roughnecks struck first in the second half and took their first lead of the evening when a White Oak ball carrier bounced outside to the left and raced 61 yards down the sideline to cap a one-snap score. A two-point conversion pass gave White Oak a 27-21 advantage with 9:40 on the clock.

The Tigers final score of the night came late in the third when Steele scored on an option keeper from a yard out to cap a 13-play drive that used over seven minutes and gave the Tigers a one-point lead.

The teams traded possessions before White Oak began its winning drive at the 6:53 mark.

The Tigers got the ball back with a little over a minute but ended up with a fourth-and-25 situation after a false start penalty. A personal foul against White Oak helped them get a new set of downs, but time ran out after a third-down sack.

	Score By Quarters
	1st	2nd 3rd		4th	Total
Troup	15	6	7	0	28
WO	6	13	8	7	34

Key Statistics:

Total yards: Troup 300, White Oak 400.

Rushing: Troup 42 attempts, 265 yards, White Oak 39 attempts, 254 yards.

Passing: Troup 2-6 35 yards, White Oak 12-24 146 yards.