Tigers put it all together in win over Bruins

Sep. 25—The Lebanon football team finally saw how good they can be when they put everything together.

The Tigers made the big plays they needed to down the stretch to defeat a quality Tri-West team 28-21 in a Sagamore Conference game on Friday night.

"We didn't feel like we showed at any point in the first three weeks who we really could be," Lebanon head coach Jeff Smock said. "Our challenge this week was to let everything go tonight and lets see what happens if all all our guys play like they can. Our guys battled tonight against a really, really good football team and this is a great win for us."

Lebanon led 14-7 at the half, getting touchdowns from Jaheem Joseph and Trevor Winkles to go into the break with the lead.

Tri-West tied the game early in the third quarter, but Lebanon responded with a touchdown drive, retaking the lead on a pass from Landon Fouts to Brayton Bowen.

The Bruins came back to tie the game one more time, but with less than five minutes remaining, a Kaden Lark touchdown gave Lebanon the lead for good.

"With Jaheem, Hunter (Crew), Kaden Lark, Brayton Bowen, Trevor Winkles — we feel like we have plenty of guys that can go and make plays," Smock said. "You saw that tonight. We converted some big third downs and that is something we haven't done yet."

But there is still time on the clock and the Tigers need to make a defensive stand. They forced a Tri-West turnover on downs with three minutes left on the clock, but on the ensuing possession faced a long third down.

But on third and 12, they got a 27 yard pass to Joseph to move the chains.

After three running plays, the Tigers iced the game when they went for it on fourth down and drew a holding penalty.

Smock said that they wanted to be in aggressive see the game out and get the key victory.

"We have faith in our guys," Smock said. "In those situations you can be aggressive and show your guys you have confidence in them, or you get tentative. We didn't want to leave things to chance, and just did what we needed too."

The Tigers are now 3-3 after starting the season 0-3.

The Tigers have a homecoming match up with Crawfordsville next weekend and then end regular season with a home game against Southmont and a road trip to Western Boone

Smock said that he feels like the team is heading in the right direction and they get to the critical part of the season.

"All week, we talked about how we wanted to finish turning the tide," Smock said. "We didn't start the way we wanted to, and we can't do anything about those three games. But we can go 3-0 in the second third of the season, and now we feel like we are caught back up. Now it is time to put the pedal down and ascend as a team."

Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.