Second Round Fight

By Shea Haile Courier Sports 

GORDONSVILLE — Two fourth quarter touchdowns allowed the Gordonsville Tigers football team to cap a gutsy 21-6 Class 2A playoff second round win last Friday night. The victory concluded a perfect 7-0 record for Big Blue at Turney Ford Field this season. 

Regardless of playoff outcomes, the Tigers will be on the road for the rest of the playoffs — beginning with a highly anticipated 2A quarterfinal showdown against Marion County in Jasper Friday night (weather permitting).

Big Blue remained unbeaten and improved to 12-0. The Oneida Indians, the No.2 seed in Region Two, ended their season with a 6-6 record.

“I thought the kids did a great job,” said Gordonsville head football coach Stephen Jackson. “This is the playoffs and you are going to have nights where you play your best ball game and beat teams by a lot. We tried to talk about that — you are not going to beat everybody by a lot. You are going to have situations in ball games where you have to handle adversity especially in the playoffs.”

Jackson continued, “You are going to have to make adjustments and the kids did a great job of that and they played so hard.”

Gordonsville was presented with an obstacle early in the second quarter when senior starting quarterback and defensive back J Foster exited the contest after a violent high tackle. 

Foster re-entered the game for the Tigers’ second half opening drive but exited the contest again. 

Mason Cross, an experienced senior signal caller, entered the game and operated the Tigers offense. Cross guided Gordonsville to two scoring drives and had an eight yard rush.

“We talk about adversity all the time — every game is going to have some form of adversity  and they did a great job,” said Jackson. “When one man goes down, the next one comes in.”

“I am so proud of these seniors — they are the ones that held it together. They made sure we were fighting every play.”

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