The 2009 Commerce football season ended Friday night, as the gridiron Tigers were knocked out of the postseason in the second round of playoffs by Darlington.
Darlington ended the Tigers’ playoff run 28-14, leaving the Tigers 7-5 (5-1 region) for the season.
“I deem our season a tremendous success and it was a heck of a lot of fun for me and them as well,” said head coach Steve Savage.
According to Savage, the loss boiled down to one factor.
“It came down to turnovers,” Savage said. “We had too many of them at the wrong time.
“We dropped a pass or two and had some fumbles and lost two, which made the difference.”
“It was two pretty good teams playing each other,” Savage said. “If we had played 10 times we would have probably won five apiece,” Savage said. “They made some good plays and offensively we played well.”
Deon Brock kept Darlington’s defense worried, and according to Savage, because of that focus Commerce was able to do some different things, including putting the ball in the air.
“They kept a close eye on Deon, but he caught a few passes and gained a few yards. We were able to do some other things because of what they were doing to try and stop him,” the coach said.
All things considered, Savage said he felt that both teams put forth their best.
“The effort was great, the playing was great. Both teams played well. Darlington just played better than we did,” said Savage.
While this season ended Friday night, next year’s season will have some new challengers in Class A, as the GHSA works on region alignments for the 2010-2014 term. Putting to rest any rumors, Savage stated, “Commerce is going to play single A next year.”
Next year will also be a fresh slate for the Tigers as Savage said he doesn’t put much stock in carryover between seasons.
“I don’t know if you take things over to the next season — I think that is overrated,” he said. “What we did this season, I thought this football team had a good year. It ended sooner than they would have liked it to. Three of the teams that beat us are still playing, and one of the other teams was still playing last week. We played all those teams well and had chances of winning those games.”
Commerce lit up the board first on a Jon Cash run in the ball. Darlington tied the game with just over three minutes left in the half.
Cash returned the kick to Commerce’s 29-yard line, but Darlington picked off a pass at its own 42, then drove in for the score to lead 14-7 at the half.
A Darlington QB keeper for 52 yards put the Purple Tigers inches from the goal line to start the third period. Darlington pushed in for the TD and moved ahead 21-7.
Commerce responded with a 35-yard scoring strike from Cody Streetman to Carl Allen to close the gap to one touchdown, but a fourth-quarter Tiger fumble at the Darlington 10 killed a drive to tie the game. Darlington scored late in the quarter to ice the win at 28-14.
