Smithville Beats La Grange 14-10 in Defensive Battle
La Grange and Smithville have played one another in football almost every year for the past century. But rarely in this historic rivalry of Highway 71 neighbors have points been so hard to come by. In the district opener for both teams Friday at Leopard Stadium, Smithville beat La Grange 14-10. The win snapped a fourgame losing streak for the Tigers, while the Leps now face an uphill battle to get back in the playoff race. “This was all about perseverance,” said Smithville head coach Cyril Adkins. “These kids deserve to win, but I tell them all the time just because you think you deserve something, nobody’s just going to give it to you.” Neither defense was giving away much of anything Friday.
“Defensively I feel good. We just gave up two big plays,” said La Grange head coach Matt Kates. “Offensively, we’ve got to make more plays, find ways to get in the endzone ... I feel like they (Smithville) handled the line of scrimmage.” Smithville managed just 45 rushing yards, but was able to strike via some long pass plays.
Senior quarterback Derrick Roberson completed 10 passes for 118 yards, including the goahead 54-yard touchdown to Ramonz Adams with 2:30 left in the third quarter. La Grange, meanwhile, only managed 185 yards of total offense.
Jakobe Wilkerson had a team-high 48 rushing yards for the Leps.
Sophomore quarterback Bear Meng completed 16 of his 24 passes, but many were for short gains. The Leps had just 97 total passing yards, led by Jaden Williams’ seven catches for 27 yards.
The night actually started well offensively for the Leps as they marched 69 yards on 14 plays on their first drive of the game. But after getting as far as the Smithville 12-yard-line, they had to settle for a 29-yard field goal by Phillip Arceneaux.
The Leps held that 3-0 lead until right before halftime when Roberson capped an 85-yard drive with a six-yard touchdown run. That score was a set up by a 44-yard pass from Roberson to Adams.
In the second half neither team seemed to want to hold onto the football. Early in the third quarter, La Grange’s Clayton Knapik returned a Tigers fumble 52 yards to set up the Leps at the Tigers 18 yard line.
“I was just in the right place at the right time. The ball popped up and there were three of us there, I just took it and just tried to take it as far as I could,” Knapik said.
But three plays later the Leps fumbled the ball back to Smithville, only to see the Tigers fumble it right back two plays after that when Eli Roberts snagged the fumble.
“I really didn’t even see the ball, Clayton kicked it, it went on the ground and I scooped it up,” Roberts said. “It was a big momentum changer, it got us going for a little bit.”
This time La Grange cashed in when Meng threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Scott.
“I just really wanted to get some points on the board,” Scott said.
Up 10-7, La Grange seemed to have stopped the Tigers on their ensuing possession on a 3rd-and-34 that had been fueled by Smithville penalties.
But the Leps bailed out the Tigers with a personal foul of their own. With new life, Roberson threw a 54-yard touchdown to Adams one play after the Leps penalty. That put Smithville up for good.
In their first two possessions of the fourth quarter La Grange didn’t even manage a first down.
But Smithville was also having trouble moving the football, so La Grange got the ball back at their own 20-yard line with 2:09 left in the game.
The Leps moved the ball 37 yards on six plays into Smithville territory when on a thirdand- five play with under a minute to go and no timeouts left, a catch-and-lateral trick play was fumbled by the Leps and Smithville (2-4 overall, 1-0 in district) celebrated a win.
“It was close. You wonder ‘what if,’” Kates said of the final offensive try. “It’s a play we’ve practiced.”
La Grange (2-4 overall, 0-1 in district) will try to bounce back as they welcome Caldwell to Leopard Stadium this Friday. The Hornets are 0-6 and coming off a 32-20 loss to Gonzales last week.
“The kids battled their tails off tonight,” Kates said. “We just have to go back to work.”