Tigers pull away late to win Class C championship

STILLWATER -- Undefeated Timberlake scored three times in the final 13 minutes of the game to win its first state championship here Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers beat Seiling 38-16 to cap a perfect 14-0 season and claim the Class C football title at the new $21 million Pioneer Stadium.

Seiling played near perfect football through three periods, but couldn’t overcome the Tigers’ big play offense down the stretch.

Tied at 16-16 in the third period, Timberlake went 73 yards in just six plays to take the lead with 59.6 seconds left in the quarter.

Senior quarterback Jake Bowers got free down the sideline for a 28-yard touchdown run, his second of the game, then threw a pass to Trevor Ross for the conversion and 24-16 leads.

Seiling had answered two previous scoring drives, but the Wildcats couldn’t get anything going on their next possession, gaining just three yards on two plays and punting.

Five plays later Johnny Ketterman put the game away with a 64-yard touchdown run to make it 32-16.

Again, Seiling was unable to get anything going offensively and punted back to the Tigers.

This time, it took them six plays to go 40 yards for the score with Bowers hitting Ross on a 27-yard scoring play for the final margin. That touchdown came with just 3:49 left in the game.

Seiling made one final drive into Timberlake territory before time ran out.

The Tigers, who had beaten Seiling 52-6 earlier this year, never trailed but were unable to shake free of the determined Wildcats.

Jordan McDonald’s interception stopped Timberlake’s first drive, but on their next possession the Tigers got on the board as Bowers slipped free on an option and went 26 yards. Bowers added the conversion for an 8-0 lead.

Seiling moved into Tiger territory on its next possession, but fumbled. The Wildcat defense, though, came up big stopping Ketterman on a fourth and one at their 37.

From there, Seiling went 64 yards in 12 plays to tie the game.

Zach McDonald and Casey Cook had key runs in the drive and McDonald scored the touchdown on a 9-yards scramble. McDonald’s conversion run made it 8-8.

After an 8-yard Tiger punt into the wind, Seiling had possession at the TImberlake 28 late in the half, but two holding penalties and a sack led to a punt.

Austin Reuss broke a 57-yard run on the third play of the second half to put Timberlake up briefly 16-8.

McDonald brought the Wildcats right back, popping fee on runs of 13 and 15 yards, then scoring on a 5-yard run at the 7:01 mark. McDonald had the conversion for a 16-16 tie. Jordan Nelson also had a pair of key runs in the drive.

On the enusing kickoff, the ball went off Reuss’ leg at the Tiger 5 and the Wildcats forced a punt, getting possession on the Tiger 37.

But they were uanble to move and eventually had to punt, leading to Timberlake’s big late-game explosion.

McDonald led the Wildcats with a 130 yards on 21 carries.

Timberlake had a 390 to 209 edge in total offense. Bowers and Ketterman were the big guns on the ground.

Seiling finished its season 12-2 with both losses coming to the Tigers.

Notes: Late in the game, Seiling’s Eddie Pittman was injured on a short run and was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons with a sore neck. Seiling was playing in its fourth state championship game and is 2-2 overall. This was the Wildcats first appearance in the finals since dropping to 8-man two years ago. Seiling moves to 8-man Class B next season. Timberlake was in the finals for the second time. In 1999, the Tigers lost to Medford. Timberlake coach Brian Severin played for Seilng coach Andy Claborn in high school at Helena-Goltry - which is one of the schools that now forms Timberlake.

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