Naugatuck, W. Va. — A successful Tolsia football season has come to an end after a 48-8 loss to #1 Tug Valley ( 11-0 ) in the first round of the Class A playoffs Saturday at Bob Brewer Stadium.
Robert Evans with the stiff arm on the Panther defender to get extra yardage on the Rebels opening drive.
On the opening drive of the contest Tolsia chewed up most of the first quarter with a 16 play drive that was capped off by a Luke Williamson 2 yard touchdown and Fred Ekers added the two point conversion run for a 8-0 lead with 3:16 left in the first quarter.
Luke Williamson lowers is head to get into the end zone for the touchdown.
#2 Fred Ekers on his way for the two point conversion against Tug Valley.
It didn’t take the Panthers long to answer and tie the game up with 13 yard touchdown pass from Preston May to Bryson Elia and May to Adam Slone two point conversion.
After stopping Tolsia at midfield and scoring early in the second quarter on a 50 yard touchdown pass from May to Slone and Tug Valley was well on their way to victory scoring 48 unanswered points after the Rebels opening touchdown.
Sophomore Robert Evans who had a monster season led the Rebels with 106 yards rushing on 24 carries, Evans also had 6 receptions and went 1-1 passing, he also picked off two passes defensively.
Luke Williamson completed 5 of 11 passes and rushed 12 times for 21 yards, Ekers had 6 rushes for 11 yards, Dylan Stroud had 2 carries for 8 yards.
The Rebels forced four turnovers on defense with Jessie Jarrell recovering two fumbles to along with Evans intercepting two passes.
The Rebels will return a ton of talent from this year’s team and will be poised to make some noise in the playoffs in 2025.
The Panthers will host #8 Petersburg ( 6-5 ) on Saturday afternoon at 4:00.
Tolsia Head Coach David Thompson
COACH’S COMMENTS
“… Like I have said for the last month we are so banged up and only dressed 23 players today but I’m proud of the ones that stuck it out all year long. We tried to slow the game down and that opening drive was exactly what we talked about during practice. It was a thing of beauty.”
“… They have a very good offense and once they got the momentum it was hard to stop them. We teach our kids not to quit and play until the end. That is not in our DNA. A lot of kids just quit and go home and we’re not going to do that.”
