Tri-Valley drops game to Wilder 40-28

On Friday night, the Tri-Valley Titans took to the field at Wilder High School to take on the Wildcats. A sea of purple jerseys flooded through the gate boasting 31 players, 11 of whom were seniors and seven of whom were over 230 pounds.  

 The battle began when Wildcat Moises Perez (No. 10), took the Titan kick-off 87-yards for the first touchdown of the night.  

 After a failed two-point conversion attempt, the Titans regained their composure and answered with a commanding drive of their own that resulted in a rushing touchdown by Orion Southwick with 4:31 left on the clock.  The first quarter ended with the game tied 6-6.

 The action continued in the second quarter with the Wildcats prowling out another touchdown that moved them into the lead again with a score of 6 to 12.  

 Two minutes later Tri-Valley added another touchdown with a 52-yard pass from Jayden Mink to Michael Carpenter, finished off by a two point-conversion pass to Tyrel Barnett pushing the score to 14 to 12 for the Titans.  

 In catlike fashion, Wilder pounced again, adding another touchdown and two-point conversion to make the score 14-20.  

 The Titans rallied when Mink connected with Tyrel on a 10-yard touchdown pass and two point conversion from a Mink quarterback keeper to regain the lead 22 to 20. 

 Despite the high hopes of going into the half with the lead, the Wildcats dug in their claws and threw up a long pass to move the score 22 to 26 to end the half.

 After a short break and adjustments from both teams, the third quarter was a tangle of strong defense on both sides that left both teams scoreless. 

 Then, early in the fourth quarter the Wildcats got into the end zone for another six points.  

 With the pressure on, the Titans worked to climb back into the game to be spoiled by a Wilder pick-six and two-point conversion that moved the score 22 to 40.  But the Titans didn’t stop fighting. With determination they pushed the score 28 to 40 after a 35-yard pass from Mink to Carpenter which ended the scoring frenzy by both teams.

 “This was a hard fought game against a good team,” coach Bob Johnson said.  “Take away a couple of big plays on their part and the game could have gone either way.”

 The Titans concluded the game with 319 yards of offense and a defense force led by Orion Southwick’s 12 tackles, followed by Michael Carpenter with six tackles, and Reed Thulander, Jayden Mink, and Cody Nixon with five tackles each.  

 Hearts were heavy as fans and players left the field, contemplating the hard fought battle the Titans never gave up on.  

 Lessons were learned.  Mettle was tested. And the fire of determination was burning even deeper.  

 Join the Titans on Friday, Sept. 14, for the first home game of the season against Idaho City.  Let’s go Titans!