Tigers' Comeback Bid Falls Short On Thanksgiving

NEWPORT - After surrendering 20 unanswered points through three quarters, the came close to upsetting the first-place , but turnovers and penalties put a damper on their spoil bid.

Tiverton (4-4 Division III) blocked a Rogers punt in the Viking end zone and was recovered by Paul Skaggs for the touchdown and Trevor Pavao connected with Tayler Ekstrom for the two-point conversion to close the gap to 12.

Pavao found Ekstrom two drives later for a 36-yard score and the extra point shrunk the deficit to five.

After forcing Rogers (7-1 Division III) to punt on its next drive, the Tigers foud themselves on their own 31-yard line. On their own 48, Pavao once again completed to Ekstrom and this time Ekstrom ran 52 yards for what appered to be a touchdown, but a Tiverton penalty near the line of scrimmage prevented the Tigers from taking the lead.

"It's been one of the things hurting us all year long," Tiverton coach Bob Murray said of the team's penalties. "It's just unfortunate."

The Tigers threw an interception to Viking senior Colin Chase two plays later, and Rogers ran out the clock to collect its seventh league win and head into the postseason as the No. 1 seed.

Turnovers were a problem the entire game for Tiverton, throwing five interceptions and losing two fumbles. Murray praised the team for its effort but stresses the need to execute when needed.

"We did a lot of good things but we just didn't finish things either," Murray said.

Ekstrom, named the game's MVP, said the nullified touchdown was difficult to deal with.

"It hurts," Ekstrom said. "It hurts a lot. That could have been the game-winning touchdown and it gets called back. You can't do anything about it."

Rogers hed coach Frank Newsome was certain the play was a touchdown -- mainly because he didn't see the flag thrown.

"I didn't even see the call, honestly," Newsome said. "I thought he scored the touchown. You get lucky sometimes. I feel bad for them because they fought so hard. I hate when it has to come down to something like that."

Junior running back Corey Jones scored two touchdowns and rushed for 141 yards on 22 carries. Jones usually plays behind senior running back Reeyon Watts, but Newsome wanted Jones to get a bit of exposure before the postseason.

"He's good enough to play," Newsome said. "He's behind Reeyon right now but he's going to help us by getting more experience. It was good to get him in there."

Tiverton's season ends with the loss. Murray was impressed by how his team battled against the Division III powerhouse.

"The kids played hard for us," Murray said. "We tried all kinds of different things and we did our best. That's all we can ask of and they played hard till the end. We got beat by a pretty good football team."

Newsome believes there are areas to improve on before the team's first playoff game.

"If you win a game like this there is plenty to talk about," Newsome said. "You're starting to anticipate next week's game more than next week's, but there were some fumbles and stuff like that we need to get rid of. Just eliminate the mistakes because mistakes hurt you a lot more in the playoffs than in the regular season."

NOTE: An updated story with statistics will be available later tonight.