Tigers defeat Westmoreland in season opener
The Macon County High School Tiger season opener was on Saturday night Aug 19th at Westmoreland. A huge crowd was on hand to see the 2023 Tigers and Eagles.
Macon County opened the scoring with 8:27 left in the first quarter. Tyler Gregory had a seven yard touchdown score and Eli Gammon mad the PAT to give Macon a 7-0 lead.
That was all the scoring in the first half. The game was pretty sloppy with lots of penalties.
With 9:35 left in the ballgame the floodgates opened. Gregory got his second rushing touchdown from nine yards out. Gammons made the PAT and the Tigers led 14-0.
Westmoreland came right back and Jacob Richardson hit Cooper White for a 51 yard pitch-and-catch score. The PAT was no good and with 9:15 left in the game it’s tightened up 14-6.
On the ensuing kick-off, it took Tiger Gabe Borders 14 seconds to return it 95 yards in a sensational touchdown run. Gammon made the PAT and Macon led 21-6 with 9:01 left in the game. Gregory would tack on his third rushing touchdown of the game from 14 yards out and the PAT would be blocked. With 6:34 left in the contest the Tigers led 27-6.
You very rarely ever see a Westmoreland squad stop playing hard. The Eagles came right back on the next possession and Richardson had a quarterback sneak from two yards out to score. Peyton Dickens made the PAT and it was 27-13 with 5:29 left in the game.
Then the Tigers methodically marched down the field on the next possession, overcoming a few more costly penalties. Borders had a 12 yard touchdown run with 4:37 left in the game. The Pat was wide right. So your final score was Macon County 33 Westmoreland 13.
For the game Luke Gammon was 7 of 10 for 133 yards passing with one interception and he had five rushes for 18 yards.
Tyler Gregory had a big game. He ran 13 times for 128 yards and three scores. Gabe Borders had 12 rushes for -10 yards and one touchdown while he had three catches for 57 yards. Bradon Warren had 10 rushes for 84 yards and Cole Stephens had one rush for seven yards.
Braylon Flowers had two catches for 43 yards while Kelan Hire had one big catch for 31 yards and Matthew Wheeley had one for two yards.
Flowers and Borders led the way on defense with six tackles each. Dalton Slayton had five, Cole Stephens had four, and JoJo Scott had three.
Next up is another rival game as the Trousdale County Yellow Jackets come to Pat Parker Memorial Field on Friday Aug 25th. Kick-off is scheduled for 7 pm.
(Photos by Julie Collins)
