by Larry Ham
OK, this is getting ridiculous.
For the third time this season, the Reedley College football team took a late lead in a game only to give up a late touchdown and suffer a heartbreaking loss. This time the final score was 48-43, and the beneficiaries were the West Hills Falcons.
The Tigers again played poorly in the first half, falling behind 28-7 at halftime. The Falcons, who had run the ball a majority of the time in their previous five games, exploited the Tiger defense’s biggest weakness – their secondary – and threw the ball all over the place, as Quarterback Freddie Taliulu threw four first half TD passes.
The Tigers rebounded in the second half and tied the score at 35-35. That’s when things got weird. The Falcons scored to take a seven point lead, and then with less than a minute to go, the Tigers scored on a long TD pass from Quarterback Joshua Allen to wideout Rafael Aroujo-Lopes. In a bold and gutsy move, the Tigers went for a two point conversion and were successful, as Allen threw to Jason Pierre for the two pointer.
With a one point lead and less than a minute to play, the only thing that would prevent a Tiger win was a long pass completion, and that’s exactly what the Tigers allowed, and just as in two previous late game losses, they let the lead slip away and suffered perhaps their most agonizing loss in recent memory.
This Tiger team needs to learn how to play with a late lead. They could very easily be 6-0 on the season instead of the reality of a 2-4 record.
The Tigers will be at home for their homecoming game this Saturday night when they host Cabrillo College (1-5) at six p.m.
Check back every Monday evening during football season for the latest game recap and watch for some RC football interviews! And you can check out the webcasts here: www.meridix.com/everywhere.php?liveid=ReedleyCollege
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