Third Quarter Blitz; Lions 27-0 third quarter surge, Owls’ four turnovers demise in region loss

By Terry Collins Courier Sports

CARTHAGE — The Smith County High Owls football team was coming off two straight victories while the Cannon County Lions had lost two straight as the two 3-3 teams clashed last Friday night in Carthage.

The winner of this Region 4-2A game had the inside track on hosting a playoff game in a new format beginning in November. 

The Lions took advantage of four Owls’ turnovers which led to four TDs in Cannon Co.’s 50-25 victory. 

Cannon Co. used a 27-0 third quarter run to put the game away as they improved to 4-3 overall and 1-1 in Region 4-2A. 

“I’m proud of our players and coaches,” said Smith County head coach Matt Dyer. “That is a really good, and explosive Cannon County football team, hats off to them, they played a good game. We did some good things on offense by generating big plays and moving the ball, but the turnovers and penalties killed us. I felt like we did a good job defending most of their stuff on defense, we only gave up one or two big explosive plays.”

Dyer continued, “There were times where we did not tackle very well. The difference in the game was the turnovers, we gave them a freebie on our first drive of the game by fumbling inside our 20 yard line. We gave them a short field to move for their first score and they had two scoop and scores. That was 21 points that we just handed to them, and you can’t expect to be successful when you do that. We have to be better. It was not our best game execution wise, but we were making plays to keep us in the game.” 

READ MORE IN THIS WEEK’S COURIER