AT&T Field Arlington, December 21, 2017 –
On Thursday, The Tenaha Tigers Varsity Football team suffered their only loss of the 2017 season, to Muenster High School, by a 27-20 score. The game was the UIL State Football Class 2A Division II Championship, at Dallas Cowboy's AT&T Stadium. The Tigers finished the 2017 season with a 15-1 win-loss record.
The Muenster Hornets got on the board first when Parker McGrew connected on a 20-yard touchdown pass to Danny Luttmer with 7:53 left in the first period. Trey Taggert added the extra point kick to give the Hornets a 7-0 advantage.
Tenaha bounced back with an 11-play 53-yard scoring drive which was capped with a Trai Gardner 16-yard touchdown reception from CJ Horn with3:08 left in the opening period. Christian Castillo tied the game at 7-7 with a point after kick.
Taggert gave the Hornets a 10-7 lead with a 25-yard field goal which proved to be the only score of the second period. The teams went into the locker room with Muenster leading by three points at the midway break.
Trai Gardner gave Tenaha their only lead of the contest when he grabbed a pass from Horn and raced 60 yards for a touchdown with 9:53 left in the third period. Tenahas’ extra point attempt failed but THS led 13-10.
Luttmer scored his second touchdown, on a 20-yard reception, which gave the Hornets a 17-13 lead with 7:10 left in the third quarter. With 2:24 left in the third stanza, Taggert added a 34-yard field goal kick which gave MHS a 20-13 lead over Tenaha.
The Tigers were able to tie the game at 20-20 with a Trai Gardner 55-yard score while in the Wildcat formation, with 2:13 left in the third frame.
Muenster scored just four plays later and took a 27-20 lead after a McGrew 9-yard scoring run and a Taggert conversion kick at the end of the third stanza.
This would prove to be the final score of the contest. Tenaha has now reached the state final five times. They have lost the title game three times and won the championship twice, in 1998 and in 2011.
This was Muenster’s first championship title. They held the Tigers to a season low 251 yards offensively.
