Published: October 08, 2008 09:49 am         

Ethel climbs to 3-2

The game plan is pretty simple for the Ethel High School Tigers at this point in the season.

"We are just playing them one at a time, and not worrying about anybody other than who we are playing next," said EHS head coach Paul Dees. The goal is for that last game of the season against Sebastopol to mean something. "We have to take care of business and take care of ourselves. If we do we will be sitting in the position we need to be sitting in."

Ethel trailed a physical South Leake team 6-0 at the half on Friday night, but scored a pair of second-half touchdowns to post a 17-6 Region 3-1A win.

The victory moved the Tigers to 3-2 in league play going into Friday night's road game against an Edinburg team that just broke its state record 58-game losing streak.

"I imagine they will be sky high," Dees said. "They would have to be."

Dees feels like his team won't be overlooking the 1-5 Eagles.

"That happened to us once this season, I don't look for it to happen twice," Dees said. "We will have to be ready to play, because they are going to be coming after us."

South Leake jumped out to a 6-0 lead at the half thanks to a 5-yard touchdown run by Nick Davis.

Then came a turn of events.

"I thought we came out and played harder and executed better in the second half," Dees said. "We found something that worked and we just stuck with it."

After forcing South Leake to punt to open the second half, the Tigers took over near midfield. Ethel then drove down the field to score on a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Hunter Dempsey. The kick failed, leaving the game tied at 6-6.

Ethel forced a turnover, giving itself good field position at the 15-yard line. Matt Morgan made it hurt, as he ran in from 8-yards out for a touchdown. Alexander Erving ran in the two-point conversion to put the home team up 14-6.

But still, Dees was a long way from feeling the game was in his team's control.

"You can't feel comfortable when you are only up one score," Dees said. "We felt really good after we kicked the field goal."

That field goal was a 32-yarder by Dempsey in the fourth quarter to put the Tigers ahead by 11.

Erving led the Tigers in Rushing with 65 yards on 14 carries, while Morgan had 13 attempts for 37 yards and Troymun Hawthorne gained 16 yards on five carries.

Dempsey hit on 3-of-10 passes, while Morgan had two catches for 28 yards and Deangelo Hall one for 23.

Morgan led the EHS defense with a whopping 23 tackles, while Keith Collins made 12 stops and Channin Green had eight. Erving and Antwon McCain accounted for seven stops each.