Tigers and Brahmas maintain rivalry in early season meeting
By DEMETRIUS THOMPSON - Tribune Sports Editor
Thursday, September 4, 2008 11:04 AM CDT
The game between the Paul Pewitt Brahmas and the Daingerfield Tigers this Friday won’t count towards playoff bids for either team. But that doesn’t mean that it still won’t be one of the biggest area Class 2A games of the entire season.
The Brahmas are coming off a 13 point loss to sixth ranked Arp. The Brahmas had a 14-0 before the Tigers mounted a comeback.
Kumrow reiterated that even though the Arp game was a loss, there were many positive things that came out of it. First year Paul Pewitt head coach Reggie Kumrow said that the loss taught them a lot about the team.
“One of the positive things about that game was that we were able to move the ball really well against their defense,” said coach Kumrow. “Our kids played hard and we saw some areas were we had weaknesses.
The Brahmas pilled up a lot of rushing yardage against the Tigers but couldn’t score in the third quarter.
Kumrow will look to get his first win against the Blue Tigers. The 47-14 loss at the hands of Daingerfield last season is sure to be on their minds as well.
Meanwhile, Daingerfield is coming off a convincing win over Atlanta last Friday. Still, the Tiger offense struggles some, only gaining 131 yards on the ground and committing three turnovers.
“I thought our defense played considerably well, but obviously we need to improve on offense,” said Daingerfield first year head coach Barry Bowman. “We have a new quarterback and a new running back and we knew coming into the season that it would take time.”
The two coaches have faced each other on opposite sidelines for the last four years but Friday will be the first time they will meet as head coaches. Kumrow has been an assistant at Pewitt for 23 years and took over for Brian Huckabay this summer. Bowman was a four year assistant for Daingerfield before taking over for Randle Hugg. Each coach knows that this game will be one of the toughest tests of the entire season.
“They’re a real good football team. They’re offense likes to spread the field and their defense flies to the ball,” said Kumrow. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
“Pewitt is always a good battle. We’re looking forward to it but we’re going to have to improve,” said Bowman. “I think we’ll eventually get there but its going to take some time. I think we can improve in special teams and just about everything. There’s never an area that I don’t think we can improve in.”
Pewitt junior running back Jerry Braddock had a monster game for the Brahmas against Arp, racking up 184 yards on the ground. But it was junior back D. J. Burleson who handled most of the scoring for Pewitt, with two first half rushing touchdowns. Both will need to come up big again against the Tigers if the Brahmas are to avoid starting 0-2. Defensively, the Brahmas were able to shut down Arp for two quarters, but they’ll have to stretch that to four this Friday.
Daingerfield has to feel good coming into the game as four different Tigers scored against Atlanta. Receiver Chris Jones had 86 receiving yards in Week 0, but 78 of them came on a 78 yard scoring play from sophomore quarterback Tyler Boyd. The Daingerfield defense made life miserable for the Rabbits, picking off three passes and forcing two fumbles. Carl Moore led the way with 12 tackles and Julius Hurndon added 10.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm Friday at Tiger Stadium.
