Tucker gave up a touchdown on Lovejoy’s first possession but seized control of the game by scoring the next 20 points and went on to a 34-18 victory in a key Region 4-AAAAAA matchup Friday night at Adams Stadium.
Tucker led 13-6 at halftime and got a 67-yard touchdown run from Tyler Hughey on the second play from scrimmage in the third quarter. Lovejoy answered four plays later with a 70-yard run by Barren Johnson, but the Wildcats never got closer than that 20-12 deficit.
“I thought we played well,” Tucker coach Bryan Lamar said. “We’ve got some key guys banged up, and we’re trying to fight through that. I though we did good. We had to fight through some adversity, but that’s what it’s all about.’
The victory moved ninth-ranked Tucker (4-2, 4-0) into sole possession of first place in 4-AAAAAA. It was Tucker’s fourth consecutive victory after an 0-2 start and was the Tigers’ 18th straight win in region play. Lovejoy suffered its first loss in the region and fell to 3-3 overall and 3-1 in the region.
Hughey’s run jump-started a Tucker running game that had been held to 95 yard in the first half and only 19 in the first quarter. The Tigers’ finished with 291 yards rushing and 461 total yards. Hughey had 166 on nine carries, and Donny Harris had 60 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries.
Tucker also got second-half touchdowns on a 53-yard pass from Travon Ford to Torezz Alexander and a 25-yard run from Ford, who was 9-of-14 passing for 170 yards.
Lovejoy finished with 444 yards of its own but couldn’t keep pace with the Tigers. Johnson finished with 90 of the Wildcats’ 207 yards rushing. Quarterback Khalil Arnold was 10-for-28 passing for 237 yards. Most of that went to Dayton Wade, who had 192 yards on eight catches and scored the game’s opening touchdown on a 10-yard reception.
“They’ve got good players,” Lamar said of Lovejoy. “They’ve got two really, really good receivers, the quarterback is good, and one of the running backs had a big run. So you can’t shoot yourself in the foot and not execute on third down when you’ve got a chance to get them off the field.”
Lovejoy used almost half the first quarter to take a 6-0 lead on its first possession, driving 65 yards in 11 plays and scoring on Arnold’s 10-yard pass to Wade with 6:16 to play in the quarter. Tucker blocked the extra-point attempt.
Tucker’s Zion Alexander returned the ensuing kickoff 75 yards to the Lovejoy 15, setting up a 27-yard field goal by Kyle Wright that cut the lead to 6-3.Wright kicked a 38-yard field goal on the third play of the second quarter to tie the game, and Harris gave the Tigers the lead for good at 13-6 with his 1-yard touchdown run with 2:21 left in the half.
“We knew it was going to be a process for this team this year because we lost a lot of guys from last year,” Lamar said. “We’ve talked every day about the fact that you’ve got to come to work and keep climbing that mountain. These guys had so much to learn about execution on both sides of the ball and special teams, but we’re getting better every single week.”
Lovejoy - 6-0-6-6 - 18
Tucker - 3-10-14-7 - 34
First quarter
L - Dayton Wade 10 pass from Khalil Arnold (kick blocked), 6:16
T - Kyle Wright 27 field goal, 4:08
Second quarter
T - Wright 38 field goal, 11:30
T - Donny Harris 1 run (Wright kick), 2:21
Third quarter
T - Tyler Hughey 67 run (Wright kick), 11:05
L - Barrren Johnson 70 run (kick failed), 9:42
T - Torezz Alexander 53 pass from Travon Ford (Wright kick), 6:39
Fourth quarter
L - Brenden Williams 3 run (pass failed), 10:39
T - 25 run (Wright kick), 5:21
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