The Senior football players, and cheerleader Bre Corn (C’20), celebrate Senior Day on November 2. Photo courtesy of sewaneetigers.com.
By Harry Davis
Staff Writer
On Saturday, November 2, the Sewanee Tigers lost to the Millsaps College Majors 49-25 at home on Homecoming weekend and Senior Day.
Sewanee entered the game after two tough losses to Austin, 21-24, and Trinity College, 51-12. The Tigers had a chance late in the Austin game as they scored with just under two minutes left in the game and recovered the onside kick. Sewanee was unable to score on the final drive. Sewanee’s defense struggled against Trinity as the defense allowed over 400 yards of total offense.
Millsaps entered the game with four wins and three losses. The Majors had struggled in their last two games with a loss at Austin College, 20-7, and a loss to Trinity College 24-17. In both games Millsaps’ offense has struggled, accounting for under 200 yards in the defeat to Austin College and just over 250 yards of offense in the loss to Trinity College. The Tigers will look to continue this streak of poor offensive performances for the Majors.
Both defenses started the game dominant as the Majors intercepted the Tigers on their first offensive play and the Tigers held the Majors first drive to three plays and negative 10-yards. The Tigers are intercepted again on the following drive and Millsaps’ offense marched down the field on an eight-play, 52-yard drive to score a touchdown. The Tiger’s offense stalled again and the Majors offense puts together another touchdown drive to expand the lead to 14-0. On the following drive, George Morrice (C’23) ran for an 81-yard touchdown to close the lead to 14-7.
In the second quarter, both defenses stayed strong and Millsaps failed to convert as they missed field goals on all three of their drives in the quarter. Despite a rough start by the Tigers were still very much in the game down only 14-7 at half. The start of the second half showed promise as Daniel May (C’23) intercepted the Majors on their first drive on the Millsaps 27-yard line. The Millsaps defense proved strong and held the Tigers to a field goal by Brody Palmer (C’23) to narrow the lead to 14-10.
Just as the lead was narrowing Millsaps scored on their next possession to expand the lead to 21-10. Sewanee’s offense had a quick three play drive and Millsaps scored again as the lead was now 28-10. In the fourth quarter, the Majors score again on their first possession of the fourth quarter.
With just over five minutes left in the game, the Tigers put together a quick 58-yard touchdown drive in 1:30 as Cooper Hancock (C’23) completed a five-yard pass to Cyrus McCullough (C’21) to make the score 35-18. Millsaps scored on their next two possessions before Sewanee put together one last touchdown drive capped by a Michael McGhee (C’23) six-yard run to make the final score 49-25.
Another tough game for the Tigers as the game showed promise in the first half as Millsaps accumulated over 600 yards of offense to the Tigers 268. The Majors also averaged over eight-yards a play. This game was also Senior Day as it was the last home game of the season for the Tigers as they recognized all 17 of their seniors.
The Tigers will go on the road to finish their season at Hendrix on Saturday, November 16.