Mighty Owls next for Tigers, Friday at Roettger Field at Lockland High School
by Willie Lutz
Loveland, Oh.- Although the Loveland Tigers headed out to Firebird Stadium in West Chester, their home crowd traveled with them. The head coach of the Tigers, Fred Cranford, is right in saying Loveland is more than a bike trail. Fans around the area have fallen in love with the team. When you come to any Loveland football game, don't expect to find an open seat, which my be a little different, given the fact that the team their cheering on is among the best in the state.
The Tigers are bulldozing nearly every team they play, the exception; the 7-6 victory over Winton Woods. The Tigers were faced with an interesting foe last Friday when they took on the Northwest High School Knights. The Tigers were only up 21-14 at the halfway point, but then rallied as a team to knock the Knights out of the play-offs by a final margin of 45-14.
At the beginning of this Titanic struggle, it looked like Northwest could potentially give the Tigers a run for their money. For the first time this season, an opposing offense scored on consecutive drives. To make things worse for the Tigers, they were the first two drives for the Knights offense. After the two early touchdowns, the Tigers slammed the door on the Knights, allowing no more points to come from Cory Roberson's dynamic offense. "I told the defense 'Let's go out there and have fun," commented Cranford, "We need that one stop to propel the momentum right into our laps."
The stifling Tiger defense all but shut down Northwest's senior quarterback, Cory Roberson. Although Roberson was the leading rusher and passer for the Knights, the Tigers didn't seem to have any problem stopping him on either of the two fronts. Roberson only passed for 93 yards and only rushed for 31 yards. Part credit of that should definitely go to junior corner, Jeff Prifti.
Although Prifti isn't one of the flashiest players out there, he does exactly what the job description tells him to do. Prifti is among the more underrated players on the Tigers football team. Prifti was been playing on the varsity football team since freshman year, something that not very many Tigers can claim. Prifti will take an opposing team's wide receiver and make them a black hole. If you throw the ball to the man Prifti is covering, chances are that ball will either be on the turf or heading the Tigers way. He's similar to Cleveland Browns' All-Pro corner, Joe Haden, in that his objective every play is to shutdown the opposing offense.
Another high light from this game was senior Gunner Gambill's emergence as another running threat for the Loveland Tigers. Gambill's did a marvelous role this week filling in for the injured Nate Slagel. Gambill crushed the Northwest Knights defense by picking up 242 yards rushing as well as 2 touchdowns. "We did a great job controlling the line of scrimmage, creating holes, and hitting them hard and fast" commented Cranford about the excellent running game from his senior back.
After another convincing victory this week, the Tigers will head to Lockland High School to play the Mount Healthy Fighting Owls, who are fresh off a 13-7 victory over Winton Woods. The Mighty Owls have gone a marvelous 11-1, but just snuck by the Northwest Knights 30-27 in their second to last game of the regular season. The Tigers should be preparing for this week's match up with even more intensity than usual, via the fact they're playing such a formidable opponent.
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