It wasn't pretty, but Ironton won its fifth consecutive game Friday night with a 29-26 win over Gallia Academy. The Fighting Tigers jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the second quarter, but with under a minute to play in the half the Blue Devils got a touchdown pass from Kruize Wandling to Shawn Thompson to gain some momentum. After stopping the Fighting Tigers to 3-and-out on the first drive of the second half, Gallia Academy scored again to cut the lead to 8 and the fight was on. Ironton had a 29-19 lead before the Blue Devils scored again to cut the lead to 3, but Jonathan Schweickart recovered the onside kick attempt to preserve the victory. All three of Ironton's running backs rushed for 100 yards. Chance Freeman had another great game for the Orange and Black. The junior halfback rushed for 152 yards and a touchdown. He also had 2 interceptions. Tony Murphy added 100 yards and 2 scores. Major Brice went over 100 yards for the first time in his career (106) and scored his first touchdown of the season. I can't think of a time that Ironton had 3 backs rush for 100 yards each in the same game. If anyone knows, drop me a line.
Now the Fighting Tigers are 5-2, 4-0 in the SEOAL with three very tough games remaining. It all starts Friday when the Portsmouth Trojans come to town. The Trojans are 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the league. Their only league loss was to Zanesville 56-14.
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES:
I understand that we had some problems with our internet broadcast Friday night. I have informed the IT folks here and we should be back up and running for the game this week. In fact, log on to our broadcast page on this site and click the Tiger head to listen to last week's win over Gallia Academy.

The performances just keep getting better and better for the Ironton Fighting Tigers. Friday night, Ironton crushed Marietta 61-20 at Don Drumm Stadium in Marietta. The Fighting Tiger defense shut down the Marietta offense all night while the I.H.S. offense put up over 500 yards - the most in the 2007 season. Four different players had more than 50 yards rushing and seven different players scored touchdowns for Ironton. It was a big game for Chance Freeman. The junior halfback had only 82 yards rushing and zero touchdowns on the season entering the game, but he led Ironton's rushing attack with 117 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also had 2 receptions for 27 yards and scored on two 2-point conversions. Fullback Tony Murphy kept chugging along - rushing for 100 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Jonathan Schweickart had a rushing and passing touchdown (to Marc Carter.) Other scores came from Keith Wetzel, JP Taylor and Justin Payne.
Defensively, Ironton held Marietta to just 19 yards rushing and forced 3 turnovers. The win keeps Ironton at the top of the SEOAL standings - tied with Logan. Both have 3-0 league marks.
The Fighting Tigers try to make it 5 in a row Friday night when they travel to Gallipolis to take on the 2-4 Gallia Academy Blue Devils.