Due to the cold weather, Marquez Ezzard started cold missing a pass that went right between his hands. Then some indecisiveness on the kickoff return that put his teams back against the wall down near the 10-yard line. If that was not enough, they followed up with a fumble. Coach Kevin Whitley had some hot words on the sideline hoping to warm up the team. It worked Ezzard caught a little out pass from Gabe McKenzie. He made the first guy miss turned on the afterburners and went down the sideline for 70 yards before he flipped into the end zone.
It was just a simple pitch and catch play designed to be a long handoff where the QB takes the snap stands up and throws the ball on a string to the wide receiver. It turned dramatic because Ezzard is a bonafide offensive weapon. Anytime, from any spot on the field, if he gets his hands on the ball, he is a threat to score, should the defense blink, he is gone. After the rocky start, he warmed up and went on to score four touchdowns to lead the Stockbridge Tigers to a first-round victory over the Mcintoch Eagles 40-7.
The Chiefs came into the jungle fearless-looking to do some damage. They took the games opening drive 80 yards and used nearly nine minutes of clock time before they scored their only touchdown. It looked as if though they were going to run out of gas facing fourth down in the red zone, but they converted and punched it in. Shortly after they came up with a fumble and found themselves in scoring position threatening to go up 14-0 but the Mighty Tigers Defense shut that down and bottled them up for the rest of the night.
Ezzard’s second touchdown reception went for 35 yards. It was the proverbial stake in the heart because they capitalized on a turnover and put more points on the scoreboard to go in at the half 21-7. That turned out to be a key play because it took the air out of their tires.
Gabe McKenzie came out of the dressing room hot connecting on a 60-yard bomb to Jordan Brown for a touchdown. He followed that up with an 80-yard touchdown to Marquez Ezzard they could have turned off the lights at this point it was over. The Tigers added one more score to advance to the second round of the AAAAA State Playoff by defeating Mcintoch 40-7 to take their first steps toward the BENZ.
Interesting Facts of the Game
Gabe McKenzie 5 touchdown passes and 340 yards
Marquez Ezzard 265 yards and 4 touchdowns
BJ Riley contributed 105 yards rushing.
