The Blountstown Tigers and Port St. Joe Sharks met Friday night in Port St. Joe for the district opener for both teams.
The game turned into a defensive struggle with the Tigers able to score twice in the third quarter to claim the victory, 14-6. The win was the Tigers' third straight after a season opening loss to Holmes County pushing their record to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in district play.
"They returned a couple of players for our game and they were much better on defense than we had anticipated," coach Greg Jordan said Monday.
"They had speed off the edges and we missed some blocking assignments and just never could get our offense going. With our open date this week, we've got two weeks to get everybody well and prepare for our homecoming opponent Sneads."
St. Joe's defense forced an early Tiger punt in the first quarter and the results were costly. A blocker backed up into the punter and the bouncing ball was scooped up by St. Joe and returned 30 yards for a touchdown. A two-point pass play fell incomplete, but the Sharks led 6-0, a lead they would hold into the third quarter.
The offensive stats for both teams were dismal. Blountstown ran 33 running plays for 100 yards for a 3 yards per carry average. St. Joe ran the ball for 114 yard on 36 plays for 3.2 yards per rush. The Tigers completed 3 of 9 passes for 47 yards. St. Joe completed 6 of 11 passes for a meager 23 yards and gave up one interception.
The Tigers finally put some offense together late in the third quarter. Quarterback Hunter Jordan threw a deep pass pulled in by Ryan Hathcox at the St. Joe goal line. The pass completion covered 32 yards and Andrew Bennett's PAT gave Blountstown a 7-6 lead.
Midway the final period, Blountstown put together a 7 play 72 yard drive capped off by an 8 yard run by Jordan.
Bennett's extra point kick gave the Tigers their final margin of victory, 14-6.
Javakiel Brigham led the Tigers with 49 yards on the ground on 8 carries. Jordan rushed for 34 yards on 18 rushes followed by 12 yards on 3 carries by Bobby Andrews. Alex Mayorga managed 5 yards on the ground.
Defensively for Blountstown, Dylan Lee was the leader with 11 tackles followed by Brigham with 9. Hathcox had a big game with 8 tackles followed by CJ Hiers with 6. Dewayne Larramore had 5 tackles followed by Corin Peterson,Jonathan Leath, and Tripp Taylor with 4 each.
