The Tigers came away with their first district win Friday, but the issue was in doubt until Grant Elerick ran for a one-yard touchdown with just over two minutes left in the game.
That made the score 14-6 and lifted the Tigers’record to 4-0 for the season.
“It was a struggle all night getting in sync, offensively,” said coach Chris Elerick. “It seemed every time we would get something going, we would get a penalty and kill a drive.
“I was very proud of that last drive , because the entire second half had been very frustrating. We had a chance to go in the ditch after the last TD was called back, but we didn’t.
“Out team kept their heads and went down and scored on about a 70-yard drive.”
The Tigers scored first, getting a five-yard scoring run from Chasen Neuman with 4:44 left in the first quarter. Neuman added a conversion run to make it 8-0.
Wayne scored later in the first period, cutting the score to 8-6, which is where it stayed until Elerick’s fourth-quarter run.
“Really, penalities and turnovers were the story of the night,” coach Elerick said. “We had three TDs called back, two of them long plays - a 65-yard pass and a 50-yard run.
“Overall, I would say it was a sub-par performance on offense.”
The Tigers finished with 290 yards of offense, but had another 115 stepped off on 13 penalties.
“We played much better on the defensive side of the ball,” Elerick said. “I thought our kids played with good effort and tackled well.
“And it’s a good thing, because we only scored 14 points.”
Up next is district foe Wewoka, which comes to Stroud on Friday.
Wewoka is 3-1, with only loss coming when they played up two classes and lost, 56-20, to county rival Seminole.
“Wewoka is much improved from a year ago,” Elerick said.