TRM wins homecoming 48-35 over Catholic
Published 4:00 am Saturday, October 23, 2010
T.R. Miller Tiger senior running back Anthony Herbert made sure his final homecoming as a Tiger would be one to remember.
Herbert totaled 341 yards rushing on 17 carries and had four touchdowns to lead T.R. Miller to a 48-35 homecoming win over Montgomery Catholic Friday night in Brewton.
The win for T.R. Miller improved them to 6-3 overall and finished them with a 5-2 region record.
“Well, the key to the game is to keep playing hard and don’t give up,” Herbert said. “Half of the team thought the game was over after the beginning but I just kept playing hard. Me and my lineman just kept going to the end. Since it was last homecoming, I did my best and went hard. I will never see a homecoming again so that is how I saw it as my last one. It was a good game tonight.”
The Tigers totaled 458 yards of total offense with 389 on the ground and 69 in the air. Herbert had all but 48 of the Tigers’ rushing yards and all but 117 of the total yards.
The Tigers allowed 386 yards of offense to Montgomery Catholic with 197 on the ground and 189 in the air.
Catholic had 209 yards in the first half (169 rushing 40 passing) and 177 in the second (28, 149) while T.R. Miller had 311 in the first half (242, 69) and 147 in the second half all on the ground. T.R. Miller totaled 15 first downs to Catholic’s 20.
“I am proud of us for winning the game,” T.R. Miller Tiger head coach Jamie Riggs said. “They got the momentum down there and we made some early mistakes early in the third quarter and they took the momentum. That is our deal and we should have done a better job with that. I was proud of them because down there in the second half, we can’t seem to stop them. We answered with some scores to win the game. Some teams would not have won that game tonight. So I am glad for them to win the game and finish that off.”
T.R. Miller led 12-0 at the end of the first quarter and 27-7 at the half before outscoring Catholic 7-6 in the third quarter to hold a 34-13 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth, Catholic outscored T.R. Miler 22-14, but T.R. Miller held onto the win by 13 points.
“I have go to do a better job at halftime because we have not done a good job of playing well in the second half now for three weeks in a row and I have to do something about that,” Riggs said. “We are not doing something right, so I need to do something better before next week.”
Herbert gave T.R. Miller the early lead as he went 79 yards for a Tiger score on their first play from scrimmage. Herbert would later add an 86-yard run in the second quarter and had 14 and a 3-yard touchdown run in the game.
“Sounds like somebody blocked,” Riggs said of Herbert’s numbers. “I thought we did a good job of blocking up front. We really did not the ball that many plays. But we have come around with some of that. Anthony is good and he had a few holes to run in tonight and he is taking care of the ball.
“We are blocking good right now as our backs blocked good tonight. That part was good, but we still need to correct some things, as there are too many phases of the game we failed on tonight. We gave up a long kick return and others and you can’t do that and win.”
Wil Riggs gave T.R. Miller a 12-0 lead when he scored on a 1-yard run. Riggs and David Ikner hooked up for a 13-yard pass play to give T.R. Miller a 27-7 lead with 1:12 before half.
Ikner had a 74-yard kick return in the third quarter to give T.R. Miller a 34-13 lead. Herbert’s final two touchdowns gave T.R. Miller a 45-28 lead with 4:35 left in the game as Catholic added a late touchdown.
Wil Riggs was 4-for-10 for 69 yards and one touchdown and two interceptions and Ikner led receiving with three catches for 37 yards and one touchdown.
T.R. Miller will close out their regular season at home against rival W.S. Neal in the Battle of Murder Creek.
“We need to get back to work and get some things corrected,” Riggs said. “This is where you want to be a good team — to play Neal in the last game and the playoffs coming up, we have to be really good. We have to get it done.”