Tigers drop season opener at home

By Eric Wade

Herald-Tribune

NEVADA, Mo. -- The Nevada Tigers opened the 2009 season at Logan Field, getting the season off to a quick and tough start as they faced the fifth-ranked Bolivar Liberators.

The Tigers came into the night expecting a very tough contest as they lost their last matchup against the Liberators by a final score of 45-0 in the opening game of the 2008 season. The Tigers did have one major difference working to their advantage this time, however, as they brought a full roster of active players to the field for Friday's game.

The Liberators went on after that game to work their way to an 11-2 record on the season before being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the state tournament by Webb City. That performance, as well as the many successful seasons that Bolivar fans have come to expect, earned the Liberators a top five ranking in the Associated Press preseason poll.

In his second year as head coach of the Tigers, Jay Fleeman came into the contest hoping to put his efforts at improving the Tigers football program to use and lead his team to a new level of competition, while working toward bettering last year's 2-8 record.

That was not to be, however, as Bolivar's quick-thinking defense and powerful offense were too much for the Tigers to handle and the Liberators took the victory by a final score of 41-7.

Head coach Lance Roweton's Liberators came into the game with a decided size advantage and obvious confidence in their abilities, but before the game even got started, lining up in the neutral zone gave Bolivar their first penalty. The Tigers used that early momentum swing to their advantage, ultimately forcing the Liberators to punt from inside their own 10.

Despite a good punt, the Tigers got the ball for the first time near midfield, but were unable to fight their way through the talented Liberator defense. After forcing a quick turnover of their own on an interception by Jon Blankenship, the Liberators got the ball back quickly at their own 42 yard line.

Quarterback Kolton Peavy wasted no time in making the Tigers pay for that mistake as he led the Liberator offense on a quick 58 yard drive to draw first blood. Despite normally being known as a passing offense, the Liberators put running back Jake Moffett to work right from the opening kickoff and took a 7-0 lead with 5:24 to go in the first quarter.

The Tigers responded well, mounting a long drive from their own 25 all the way inside the Bolivar 10, but were unable to close the deal as Eli Samek picked up the Liberators' second interception of the night off of Baldwin.

The Liberators wasted no time in mounting another long drive of their own, marching down the field for 91 yards.

That drive was capped off by a 4-yard run by Moffett for his second touchdown of the night. After the extra-point, the Tigers found themselves in a 14-0 hole with 8:31 to go in the first half.

The Tigers continued to win the field position game throughout the remainder of the half, but were never able to take advantage of the short field. The Liberators, however, continued to move the ball nearly at will and mounted yet another strong drive to add to their lead once again on a 28-yard touchdown pass to Talley to make it 21-0 with 4:58 to go in the half.

The Tigers got the ball back for what ultimately was thought to be the last time in the first half and were able to mount yet another strong drive that looked as though it may end in the same way as the previous two. Senior Tyler Quick had other ideas, however, as he caught a 28-yard pass to get the Tigers their first score of the game to make it 21-7 with 1:32 to go in the half.

"Offensively, we were able to get some things going, we moved the football a little bit," Fleeman said. "As we go back and look at this on tape, we're going to see we were close on a lot of plays to making things happen.

"The turnovers obviously cost us, but those are types of things that are really fixable."

Bolivar wasted no time in squashing the Tigers' momentum, however, as they quickly marched down the field again, taking just 1 minute, 15 seconds to add yet another touchdown to their lead. After the ensuing kickoff, Quick ran the ball up the middle, allowing the final 11 seconds to expire and sending the Tigers into the locker room down 28-7 at the half.

As the half came to a close, the Liberators found themselves well in control of the entire game, not just the scoreboard. Peavy passed for a total of 160 yards in the half to Baldwin's 83 and the Liberators as a team ran for a total of 110 yards, while the Tigers couldn't get much going on the ground, finishing the half with 65 rushing yards.

The Liberator defense continued their intense pressure into the second half as they continued to carry out Nevada's game plan almost to perfection, forcing the Tiger offense into mistakes, allowing Talley to pick up his second interception of the game on Nevada's first drive.

That was just the beginning of the Tigers' second half woes as Talley seemed to be there to deflate Nevada's momentum every time they tried to mount a drive.

Talley ultimately finished the contest with four interceptions, all of which put a stop to strong drives by the Tigers.

"He (Talley) is a good player for them. He does a lot of things for them, offensively and defensively, so you know, a good player," Fleeman said. "They're well-coached, they made some good decisions. And the fact of it is, they played good and we needed to play a lot better."

The Liberators took advantage of yet another drive-killing interception by Talley -- his fourth of the game -- with 8:29 to go in the game as Moffett took a handoff up the middle for 40 yards to make it 34-7.

Jared Harrill got in on the action as well with 6:42 left in the game as he got his first interception of the game on a pass down the middle from Baldwin and returned it into the end zone to give Bolivar a 41-7 lead.

That proved to be more than the Liberators needed as they took the victory by a final score of 41-7.

With that loss, the Tigers fall to 0-1 on the season and are scheduled to head out on the road for a border showdown against the Tigers of Fort Scott.