Tipp football competes in final tuneup
It was the last dress rehearsal for the Tippecanoe football team last Friday night. Anna came to town for a scrimmage against the Red Devils in a controlled scrimmage. The Rockets built an early lead in the first quarter before Tipp battled back for a 28-20 victory in three quarters, with the fourth quarter for the younger players.
“I wish we would have played a bit better tonight, but I thought we came out after halftime and played Tipp football like I know we can,” Tipp coach Matt Burgbacher said. “We are not to the point where we can just show up and think people are going to roll over; that’s why we schedule teams like this. We got pushed tonight.”
“There were a lot of positives we can take out of tonight, but with the final tuneup, we would be more solid in what we were doing. I don’t think we played with great emotion early and had some bad body language and looked tired, but that was a choice…we were not tired.”
Tipp fell behind 6-0 on a score by Anna at the 4:47 mark of the opening quarter after both teams threw interceptions on their opening drives.
Larkin Thomas bounced back after his turnover. He responded nicely with a 10-yard touchdown run with 1:30 left in the first period, and Tipp took an 8-6 lead. Both teams used two extra-point kickers on each score to get some of that work in as well.
A 50-yard bomb early in the second period gave Anna a 13-8 lead, then another score by the Rockets with 2:18 left in the half pushed their lead to 20-8.
Thomas moved them downfield in a short amount of time. Colston Artz capped the drive with a four-yard run to send the game into the half with Anna holding a 20-14 lead.
After Tipp scored to make it 21-20 in the third, they finished the scoring with 2:30 left in the quarter when Levi Jones scored from six yards out.
“We came out in the second half and played that twelve minutes like I know we can,” Burgbacher said, referring to the third quarter. “That is good that our kids showed that.”
“Some of the adversity that we dealt with (early in the game) was self-inflicted, and we can’t do that.”
Tipp now prepares this week for their season opener on Friday night as Bellbrook comes to the stadium. Kickoff is 7 p.m.
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