By Marlon Sullivan
This was an old fashion fist fight. The Malakoff Tigers and the Franklin Lions duked it out for four
quarters. The Tigers defense stopped the Lions in three critical situations to keep the Lions out of the
end zone. Franklin in their fourth trip in a row to the big game came in to AT&T having scored at least 49
points in each of their five previous playoff games. The Tiger defense held Franklin to just 7 points.
Malakoff forced a fumble in the end zone with six seconds to go in the first quarter for critical stop
number one. With 4:12 to go in the second quarter the Tigers after having fumbled the ball on their own
38, forced the Lions to punt after two negative plays. However, the biggest stop came with 2:00 to go in
the game when Franklin had the ball on the Malakoff fifteen fourth and seven. After the stop Malakoff
made two first downs to ice the game to take home the schools very first state championship.
Mike Jones the Jr. QB led the Tigers with 140 yards passing and 103 rushing. He was also outstanding
defensively. The Tigers were led on the defensive side the of the ball by Jr. Parker Poteete. Poteete had
thirteen tackles on the afternoon.
Congratulation as well to former Linden-Kildare Tiger Matthew Byrd who helps coach the defense for
Malakoff!!!! Go Tigers!!!!!!!!!!!