LITTLE GOES RIGHT FOR TMB IN SOGGY 67-6 LOSS TO TIGERS
The Panthers’ game at Springfield last week was moved to Saturday because of the inch-plus of rain that fell there Friday. But the way things went for TMB last weekend, it might not have mattered what day the two teams locked horns.
TMB’s first three drives Saturday each lasted all of two plays and ended in turnovers — turnovers the No. 2-ranked Tigers quickly turned into 21 points — as Springfield continued its hold on the Panthers with a 67-6 win.
“You start with the ball, and you turn it over and they score real fast, and then the same thing happens the next possession — it’s really tough to respond to that,” TMB head coach Ryan Kruse said. “We didn’t do a great job of responding obviously.”
Nothing went according to plan for the Panthers from the start, on either side of the ball. Playing on a short field — each turnover occured on the Tigers’ half of the field — Springfield needed a total of just 15 plays from scrimmate to build a 21-0 lead, just 7-1/2 minutes into the game.
The Panthers’ lone bright spot of the first quarter came with 1:21 left when Jack Willhite recovered a Springfield fumble. TMB — by then down by four touchdowns — would soon gain its first first down of the game on a nice 15yard run by quarterback Jackson Kruse, but the Panthers would turn the ball over on downs, and the Tigers struck again to go up 34-0 early in the second quarter. They missed the extra point, which was about only their second blemish of the first half.
The Panthers (2-1) turned the ball over on downs on their first drive of the second quarter, and the Tigers continued to pounce, going up 40-0 with 6:49 to go in the first half.
After that score, TMB was able to get into Springfield territory for the first time at the 6:31 mark of the quarter, but Kruse’s third interception set the Tigers up again, and one minute later, a short touchdown pass made it 46-0.
“I thought in the middle of the first half, we were doing some good things, we just kept making mistakes,” coach Kruse said.
An unsportsmanlike conduct call on the Tigers that was enforced on the ensuing kickoff put TMB in decent field postion for its ninth drive of the game, but the Panthers’ sixth giveaway once again opened the door for the Tigers to score, and that’s exactly what they did to push their lead to 54-0 with 2:24 left in the first half.
The first half was a complete mess for the Panthers, who gained just 54 total yards in the half. It wasn’t much better on the other side of the ball, as the machine that is the Springfield offense racked up 424 of its 564 total yards in the first 24 minutes of the game.
TMB finally got on the board on a 50-yard touchdown run by Kruse with just over 8 minutes left in the third quarter.
If there was a silver lining from Saturday’s game, it’s that it was only TMB’s third game of the season, and plenty of time will pass until the time comes when the Panthers are battling for a high playoff seed.
“Week three is not going to make or break you,” coach Kruse said. “If we came out with a win, it would’ve been, how can we keep getting better? We didn’t do that, but we can get better. It’s just one game, and it’s not going to make the season. We’ve got a long ways to go.”
Kruse ended up rushing for 122 yards on 18 carries even though the Tigers were keeping a close eye on him for the entire game.
Kruse also led the team in tackles with eight, including three assists behind the line of scrimmage. Noah Johnson had six tackles, and Nolan Verlinde and Aiden Sanow both had four.
