By Ashley Hargrove
TANNER — Landon Stephens heard several times this week about the heartbreaking loss his Tanner team suffered to Sulligent in their final game last season.
He and his teammates weren’t about to let that happen on their home field Friday night — and they didn’t as the Rattlers came away with a 17-6 first round win over the Blue Devils.
With the win, Tanner advances and will travel to Lamar County next Friday.
“Ever since the Elkmont game ended, coach (Laron) White has been telling us not to get embarrassed on our home field again,” Stephens said. “That was on our mind the whole time tonight and the win was just a whole team effort. This is great. I can’t say enough about how good our line blocked. Everything was just perfect.”
After a scoreless first half, Tanner took control on their first possession of the second half, eating much of the clock and finally scoring on a 2-yard run by Stephens with 6:52 left to play in the third quarter. Mark Adams’ point after attempt was good for a 7-0 lead.
Sulligent responded, scoring with 48 seconds remaining before the final quarter of play on a 2-yard run by Darius Swainign. The Blue Devils tried a 2-pointconversion but failed. That would be their only score of the game.
“Sulligent came in and did what we expected them to,” Tanner head coach Laron White said. “They’re still the best team we’ve played all year long. They’ve had the most speed and they’ve been the biggest and most physical guys but we did a good job of coming right back at them. Our guys played well tonight.”
Adams nailed a 30-yard field goal with 6:35 left in the game to extend the lead to 10-6. Stephens scored the final points of the night on a 10-yard run set up by a Marquez McDonald interception.
