High school football game story by Jason Grier

First-half scores stand up for Tecumseh

By Jason Grier

Tecumseh converted the plays it needed to get a win Friday night against Graham,  surviving a late-game push from Graham to get a 10-6 win.

Although it wasn’t the game the Arrows were expecting, Tecumseh’s coach Kent Massie said, “The biggest thing is, we were able to find a way to win.”



Tecumseh and Graham sustained long drives, but Tecumseh was able to get on the board first right at the beginning of the second quarter with a field goal. Its next possession Tecumseh decided to go for it on fourth-and-2 which paid off as Chuck Buchanan ran the ball in for a touchdown from 5 yards out to put Tecumseh up 10-0 at half.

The second half started off with Tecumseh’s Jeremy Herdman returning the kickoff 55 yards deep into Graham’s territory. Quarterback Tony Evans led to team down to the 18-yard line where it encountered another fourth-down decision, although this time it didn’t pay off. Logan Crockett, who made two long catches (39 and 42 yards), was unable to control the pass from Evans and get a foot down inbounds before going out of the back of the end zone.

Graham took advantage of the break and went on an 18-play drive that ended when Jake Theodor ran the ball in for the score, but the Falcons missed the extra point to make the score 10-6 in the fourth quarter.

On Tecumseh’s next drive, it was stopped near midfield and was getting ready to punt when Graham jumped offside to make the fourth down play now fourth-and-inches. After calling a timeout, Tecumseh decided to go for it and converted to get a new set of downs. Graham ended up getting the ball back with just over four minutes to play deep in its territory for a chance to win, but sacks by Brandon Jouett and Chuck Buchanan helped Tecumseh survive the late push.

 “Tecumseh has a lot of tradition and they are a sound football team, but for us to pull that out, I feel we had the momentum, but I feel we might have pulled it out if we had more time,” said Graham coach Bob Riley

Tecumseh came in expecting a win, but as Massie said, Graham put up a fight.

“They were in the game, and when you leave a team in the game, they’re going to start believing they can win the game and their intensity is going to pick up and they’re going to play harder,” Massie said.

Crockett believes the key is being focused,.

“We need to be more focused before games, because that was the reason the game was so close,” he said “If we focus before the game, we’ll succeed more. That was an ugly win, but we’ll take a W any way we can get it.”

Tecumseh (4-1) begins conference play next week against Stebbins (0-5), while Graham (1-4) will begin conference play against Indian lake (2-3).