NCR Tigers: Welcome

Wow, this was one to remember for sure. After losing to the Cowboys in last weeks final league game, we made some adjustments, moved a few people around and came up with a new plan on how to attack the Cowboys on both sides of the ball. Things couldn't have worked out better, as it seemed that every button we pushed on Saturday worked like we had hoped. The Cowboys did not play their best game that's for sure, but we had a lot to do with that. Let's see how the city championship was won for these Tigers.

YMA won the toss and took the ball to begin the game. After our defense stuffed them on the first play of the game, it looked as if we had just caught a huge break as the Cowboys fumbled on their second play from scrimmage and Brett Bromley recovered for our defense. Our offense took over the ball at the YMA 35-yard line and went to work. Jayden Brown rumbled for 5 yards on our first offensive play and our plan to pound YMA's middle was already working. But on our second play we gave the ball right back to them as Kolton and Kaiden did not get a clean hand-off and the Cowboys recovered the fumble.

YMA then put together a very good drive as they worked their way down the field, chewing up yards on the field and time on the clock. On a 2nd and short, Jackson Akers saved a touchdown with his incredible hustle to chase down the YMA quarterback. A few plays later our defense forced the Cowboys into a 4th and 9. Nick Hewett and Drake Kleck both made very good plays to make this possible. The YMA quarterback somehow fought his way thru our defense for a gain of 10 yards and another 1st down. It was a great run by #4! As the 1st quarter would come to an end, the Cowboys had a 1st down at our 22-yard line. A few plays later they would cross the goal line for the 6-0 lead. Our defensive line stuffed their extra point on a great play.

Our offense would take the ball over with about 4 minutes left in the half. We could not get anything going as the Cowboys defense was flying to the ball and we would turn the ball over on downs at our own 38-yard line. Things weren't looking good for the Tigers at this point and I knew we needed someone to make a huge play to jumpstart us. The Cowboys QB then broke free around the right side of our defense but Nick Hewett huslted to save what would have been a sure touchdown. A couple of plays later, their QB found a hole in the middle and looked to be on his way to the goal line when Ty Jones stripped the ball out of his arms and Jackson Akers fell on it to give the ball back to our offense. What a huge play by those two players and it really seemed to turn the game around for us. We only had time for a couple of plays before the end of the half and we were backed up at our own 3-yard line so we played it very safe and let the half end with us only trailing 6-0.

The 3rd quarter would belong to the Tigers and it would turn out to be the best quarter of football we have played all season. We made a couple of small adjustments on offense and it paid off early in the 3rd quarter. After a short gain by Kaiden Kuykendall on our first play of the 3rd quarter, Jayden Brown would turn in another incredible run. He broke several tackles and made his way down the sideline heading to the endzone. He met up with YMA's best defensive player (#22) on about the 25-yard line and Jayden gave him a stiff arm and outran the rest of the defense for a 58-yard TD run. We converted the extra point and took a 7-6 lead with 4:59 left in the quarter.

On YMA's next possession, our defense was awesome! A couple of really good plays by Ty and Jackson would force the Cowboys into a 3rd and long. They were then called for holding and would face a 3rd & 22. After a short gain on 3rd down, it looked like their lightning fast QB had found a seam in the defense but Drake Kleck came from nowhere to make the biggest play he has made all season long for our defense. Thanks to Drake and the rest of our defense, we would take the ball back over at the 48-yard line looking to put this game away. We wanted to take time off the clock and move the ball down the field in the process. Kaiden had a couple of runs for short gain but we were hampered by a couple of motion penalities by our offense. We then ran a new play we had been working on all week and Jayden would once again break loose for a 57-yard TD scamper to give us a 13-6 lead. The extra point would give us a two possession lead so we called timeout to let Jayden catch his breath after the long TD run. Jayden then took the hand-off from Kolton and zig-zagged in to convert the extra point and give us a 14-6 lead with 4:30 leaft in the game.

YMA was really up against the wall now with time running out and our defense refusing to back down or let up. Nick Hewett would sack the YMA QB in the backfield for a 10-yard loss. On the very next play, Hayden Chaffey made one of the biggest plays of the year as he recovered another Cowboy fumble and gave the ball back to our offense at the YMA 29-yard line. We then went into safe mode on offense and mainly just run some QB sneaks with Jayden and Kaiden. We would move the ball slowly inside the 5-yard line with less than a minute on the clock. We then took a knee a couple of times and the clock expired, giving us the 14-6 win and Rinky Dink City Championship!

We really had a lot of heroes in the game today and a lot of them were on defense. Drake Kleck made some incredible hits out there and had the YMA running backs looking for him on most plays. As his dad told me after the game, "Drake was really bringing the wood out there today." Nick Hewett was moved to defense just for this game and he made some huge tackles. He ended with 6 tackles in the game and was all over the place out there. Jackson Akers was his usual self, hustling all over the field making plays and oh yeah, he also had a fumble recovery. Ty Jones continued to be a leader on our defense, making several big plays, including stripping the YMA QB late in the 2nd quarter. Brett Bromley was sick before the game but still wanted to play and had another great game for us. Brett had 4 tackles and also recovered a fumble. Players like Josh Beam, Andrew Reeder, Hayden Chaffey and Jace Jackson really stepped up today and helped our d-line stop the Cowboys from running up our middle. George Herrell and Jacob Hermo were awesome on the corners for us today. They forced the YMA running backs inside just like they were taught to do. It was an all around great game by our defense. Anytime you hold a team like YMA to only 6 points you have really done something.

Offensively our offensive line really did a great job keeping a very big and strong defensive line out of our backfield the whole game. Blake Pinkston really did a great job at center, as Andrew Bone and Cooper Anderson were there to help keep big #33 off of him as much as possible. Kaiden Kuykendall did not gain a lot of yards in the game but did a great job blocking for Jayden all game long. Braxton Kilgore was moved to offense to be a lead blocker and he did just that all game long and was a big reason Jayden was able to break a couple of those long runs. Speaking of Jayden, he had 171 yards on 12 carries and scored 2 touchdowns. He once again had a couple of runs that made people say "WOW." He was truly amazing and the Cowboys had no answer for him today.

I could not be prouder of our team as they worked hard all season and kept getting better with each and every game. They truly deserve this city championship and I am so happy for this group of kids. Great season Tigers!!! See you all at the party.

Our player of the week for the final week of the 2012 season is Kolton Kennon. Kolton had another great game on Saturday in the City Championship versus the YMA Cowboys. He really ran the offense well as our QB all season long and Saturday would be no exception. He was a true leader out there on the field for our team and was a huge reason we won the City Championship on Saturday. Our offense is not easy to run and we do a lot of things other teams do not do. Our quarterback has to not only be very athletic but also a very smart kid. Kolton did an awesome job all season. Congrats Kolton on being named the offensive player of the week. We are very proud of the season you had for our team!

Our defensive player of the week for the final week of the season is Nick Hewett. Nick was moved to defense this week just for the City Championship game and boy did that move pay off. He had 6 tackles against the Cowboys and disrupted so many of their plays. We knew his speed could really cause them fits and it did all game long. We had several players that had great defensive games on Saturday and Nick was one of those. To have your position switched in the last week of the season and perform the way he did was amazing. Great job Nick, we are very proud of you!

NCR Tigers                   5-2   (City Champs)

YMA Cowboys              6-1

Alford's Pirates            5-2

First Arkansas             4-3

NFP Bulldogs                2-4

Police Cubs                   1-5

Simmons Steelers          0-6

Week 1

First Arkansas - 26                Simmons 1st - 0

NCR Tigers - 19                     Police Cubs - 7

YMA Cowboys - 27                NFP Bulldogs - 19

Week 2

Alford's Pirates - 26             Simmons 1st - 0

NFP Bulldogs - 19                  Police Cubs - 0

First Arkansas - 14               NCR Tigers - 13 

Week 3

NCR Tigers - 14                   NFP Bulldogs - 13

Alford's Pirates - 20           First Arkansas - 13

YMA Cowboys - 34              Simmons 1st - 0

Week 4

Police Cubs - 39                  Simmons 1st - 25

First Arkansas - 19             NFP Bulldogs - 12

YMA Cowboys - 26              Alford's Pirates - 20 

Week 5

YMA Cowboys - 26               First Arkansas - 0

Alford's Pirates - 32             Police Cubs - 19

NCR Tigers - 27                   Simmons 1st - 0 

Week 6

NCR Tigers - 28                  Alford's Pirates - 13

NFP Bulldogs - 13                 Simmons 1st - 0

YMA Cowboys - 33                Police Cubs - 0 

Week 7

First Arkansas - 12                Police Cubs - 0

YMA Cowboys - 19                NCR Tigers - 7

Alford's Pirates - 19              NFP Bulldogs - 6 

Optimist Day

Police Cubs - 26                      Simmons 1st - 19    (1/2 game)

National Family - 7                 Simmons 1st - 0     (1/2 game)

National Family - 6                 Police Cubs - 0       (1/2 game)

Alford's Pirates - 19               First Arkansas - 13

Rinky Dink City Championship

NCR Tigers - 14                      YMA Cowboys - 6 

Our offensive players of the week this week is our Tigers offensive line. They have done an outstanding job all season and did it again this past week versus two very good teams. We faced the best two defensive lines in the league this past week and our offensive line did not back down. They made holes for our running backs to run thru and gave us 110% on the field. That's really all you can ask them to do. Great job Tigers offensive line and congrats to being named our week 6 players of the week.

Blake Pinkston - Cooper Anderson - Andrew Bone - Brayedan Davis - Kaden Geddes - Jack Greer - Ayden Nichols - Kadin Swaim - Tyler Robinson

Our week 6 NCR defensive players of the week is our defensive line. They did a great job this week versus two very good running teams. Our defensive line made a huge impact in the game on Thursday versus Alford's, who likes to run the ball up the middle a lot. We really made things hard on Alford's for much of the game. YMA runs mostly on the corners but when they did run up the middle, our d-line made plays.

Congrats to the following players: Jace Jackson - Andrew Reeder - Hayden Chaffey - Josh Beam - Keaton Kennon - Landon Lewallen - Landon Martinez 

In a game that would play a big part in deciding who plays in the City Championship next Saturday, the YMA Cowboys outlasted the NCR Tigers 19-7 on Saturday. Just when it looked like we had YMA right where we wanted them, we had some bad breaks happen and YMA would take advantage and come away with a hard fought win.

YMA would get the ball to open the game and their offense went right to work but our defense was up to the challenge. They would eat up small chunks of yardage as our defense was doing a great job keeping them from breaking a long run in the opening drive. They moved the ball to our 30-yard line and faced a 4th and 4. Our defense held on a great play by Ty Jones and Jackson Akers and the Cowboys came up a yard short of the 1st down. Our offense would take the ball over at our own 27-yard line. We had a couple of plays of very little gain and then on a 3rd and long we had a bad snap that would force us to punt on 4th down. The 1st quarter would end with no score on the board yet.

The Cowboys then wasted no time getting on the scoreboard this time. Their lightning fast quarterback went around the corner and outran our defense for a quick 45-yard touchdown run giving them a 6-0 lead. We held on the extra point and the score remained 6-0. We then put together a very good drive, eating up yards and time on the clock. We knew that we got the ball back after half-time so we was wanting to score and leave them little or no time on the clock. Our plan worked to perfection! We marched down the field on an 11-play, 60 yard drive that would be capped off by an incredible run by Jayden Brown. He bounced off several Cowboy tacklers on the 12-yard TD scamper to tie the game at 6. Kaiden Kuykendall converted the extra point to give us a 7-6 lead heading into half-time.

At half Jayden had an asthma attack that really scared all of us on the sideline. The poor kid couldn't catch his breath and had a hard time just breathing at all. Needless to say, he was out for the 2nd half as things quickly get put in perspective when something like that happens. Our offense struggled without Jayden on the field and we had to put Andrew Reeder in the backfield. Andrew tried hard but had no clue what to do. We would have a 3 and out to start the 3rd quarter and the Cowboys would take addvantage. Their QB once again broke free around the outside for a 53-yard TD run to put them ahead 12-7. We once again stuffed the extra point.

Our offense continued to struggle and we were trying anything we could to move the ball. We once again went 3 and out and YMA was circling like sharks in the water. They would take the ball over at our 29-yard line and went on a 4-play scoring drive to put the final touches on this game. With then up 18-7 and the 4th quarter clock winding down, we were able to move the ball on our next possession. Kaiden Kuykendall had a couple of nice runs but the Cowboys would hold and take the ball back over with 29 seconds left on the clock. Instead of taking a knee their coach decided to try and score again, as he used two timeouts in the final 29 seconds, trying to get one more touchdown on the board. Our defense held and the clock would expire. All I can say about those last 29 seconds is that some of these coaches need to understand that we our out there to do more that teach the boys about football. Teaching them about character and class is important too. Hopefully there was a lesson learned on Saturday!

Wow, this one sure was fun. Two very good teams going at it with a possible trip to the City Championship on the line. We knew how good a team Alford's is and how well coached they are. This is the last year for their group of coaches in the rinky dink league and they will surely be missed. The Pirates got the ball to start the game and wasted no time in showing how good a team they are. They drove the ball down the field chewing up 5 minutes of the 1st quarter clock and went 60 yards in 8 plays to take a 7-0 lead. One of the reasons it took them 8 plays was some great plays by our defense. Ty Jones, Jackson Akers, Drake Kleck, Brett Bromley and George Herrell all made good plays on the drive.

Our offense would get the ball back and wasted no time in moving the ball into scoring position. Jayden Brown darted around the end for a 41-yard gain to move the ball to the Pirates 19-yard line. After no gain by Kaiden Kuykendall, Jayden busted up the middle for 4 yards. After a motion penalty, Jayden would break free for a 19-yard touchdown scamper to tie the game at 7.

Alford's once again used their big offensive line to bull their way down the field and put together another long drive. Eight plays later they had a 13-7 lead as they attempted the extra point. Ty Jones made an incredible play on the corner as he was the only man left for the running back to beat to stop the extra point. Awesome job Ty!!!

With 1:47 left on the clock before half, we knew we had to work quickly. Kaiden broke free for a 20-yard run to move the ball to the Pirates 40-yard line. The Pirates were called for offsides and then Kolton got a few yards on a QB keeper. Jayden then struck again as he outran the Pirates defense for a 28-yard touchdown to make it all tied at 13. We then converted the extra point to take a 14-13 lead into the half.

The 3rd quarter we would get the ball and was hoping to put the Pirates back against the wall with another touchdown. After a couple of plays of short yardage, Kaiden tore loose with a 25-yard scamper to move the ball to the Pirates 25-yard line. Jayden then broke several tackles on the next play as he rumbled for the final 25-yards for his 3rd touchdown of the game. We converted the extra point to take a 21-13 lead.

Alford's then put together a 6-play drive that would eat up the rest of the 3rd quarter clock. Early in the final quarter we had forced them into a 4th and long. The Pirates tried a pass that fell short and we would take the ball back over on our own 35-yard line. To be honest we were now trying to run out the clock and just hold onto the ball. After a run of no gain by Nick Hewett, Jayden somehow found a hole in the middle of the Pirates defense and scooted 67 yards for another touchdown to put the final touches on this game. After we converted the extra point it was a 28-13 Tiger lead with just 3:33 left in the game.

Our defense then refused to let the Pirates break a long run. They moved the ball in small chunks at a time, running out the rest of the clock and the Tigers came away with a huge 28-13 victory. Our defense was awesome in the 2nd half, holding the Pirates to no points in the final two quarters. Coach Chris and Coach Dylan made a couple of small adjustments at half-time and it really paid off in the final 12 minutes of play. It was a hard fought win against a very good team. With the win we move to 4-1 on the season and will play the un-defeated YMA Cowboys on Saturday at 10am.

We had lots of heroes in this game on both sides of the ball. Jayden lead our offense with 188 yards on 8 carries and 4 touchdowns. But he did not do it alone. He got great blocking from our offensive line and his fellow running backs. Kolton Kennon continues to run our offense to perfection, really taking care of the ball and not making mistakes. Defensively Jackson Akers and Ty Jones each recorded 6 tackles. Brett Bromley and Hayden Chaffey did an awesome job on the defensive line and came up with 4 tackles each. Drake Kleck, Josh Beam and Jacob Hermosillo also had really good games for our defense as did George Herrell. Great win Tigers!

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