The Sayre Eagle football team entertained theThomas Terriers on Homecoming night on Eagle field where they were defeated by the score of 20 to 8 last Friday evening. The Eagles displayed a strong defensive effort in the first half of play and led the Terriers 8 to 0 at halftime.
The defense remained tough in the second half but only seven minutes into the second half was all Thomas needed to put their 20 on the scoreboard. Like Sayre in the first half, the Terriers took the second half kickoff and drove for their first touchdown. Following the kickoff the Eagles fumbled the first play and the Terriers took advantage and scored in one play. That catastrophe led to another when the ensuing kickoff was fumbled with Thomas recovering at the Eagle 38.
Six minutes later Thomas scored again and the final score was in the books. The second half was marred with penalties that hampered the Eagles getting any sustained drives. Sayre ran only 13 plays the entire second half as a result. Overall, the Eagles were flagged an astounding 21 times for 147 yards. Thomas also was hit with the flag 14 times.
35 penalties in one game, is unheard of and reflects the game as being focused on the officials rather than the talents of the players.
The Eagles took the opening kickoff and drove the length of the field in 10 plays to put their only points of the night on the scoreboard with Dustin McSorley ending the drive on a 3 yard slant into the end zone.
Zane Allen ran across the extra 2 points to give the score 8 to 0 with 7:49 left to play in the first quarter. Sayre managed to prevent the Terriers from any threatening drive on their 4 offensive possessions to close out the first half and lead by the 8 to 0 score at halftime.
Thomas received the second half kickoff and commenced to march 59 yards in 12 plays to put their first of three touchdowns in the game with the score coming from a 2 yard slant by QB Tye Littlebird into the end zone.
An attempted pass for the 2 extra points failed to connect leaving the score 8 to 6 in favor of Sayre with 6:35 left to play in the third quarter.
Zane Allen returned the ensuing kickoff 33 yards to give the Eagles their next offensive possession at the Sayre 48.
But the good field position was squelched by a ten and a five yard penalty before the first play could be put into motion. Facing a first down and 25 yards to go from the 33, Sayre was plagued with a fumble on the first play at the 33 yard line and the ball was recovered by Thomas at the Eagle 30 yard line. Thomas took advantage quickly after the fumble and scored on their first play when QB Littlebird launched a pass to Warren Cometsevah for a 30 yard TD.
A pass for the PAT was good and the score was quickly 14 to 8 with 5:44 remaining in the third quarter with Thomas now on top.
The ensuing kickoff was an immediate disaster, when the Terriers kicked an on-side kick off and recovered it at the Sayre 38.
Ten plays and five penalties later Thomas scored the final TD of the night on a 9 yard pass from Littlebird to Daniel Cornell. A kick for the PAT failed and the final score was 20 to 8 with 11:49 left to play in the fourth quarter. Sayre was penalized 6 times in the fourth quarter to take away an hope of closing the gap.
I have kept the Sayre stats and have written the team news article every year since 1968 and have never seen such a display of flags thrown in one game. It is very hard for me to believe that 2 teams could commit 35 mistakes in a single game. Twenty would be very unusual. Several times the officials would throw a flag and then seem confused as to what to do as time ticked away.
I hope that both teams can shake off this bad experience and go forth to play up to their potential in the games ahead without the terrible distraction of flag throwing. Just my 2 cents but 58 years has taught me that no two teams could be that undisciplined and I don’t think they were last Friday. Sayre will travel to Carnegie for their final non- district game before the district schedule begins.
