The Tennessee Temple Crusader football team earned their 11th win of the season and their first playoff victory in school history Friday night at Finley Stadium with an impressive 51-14 romp over Monterey.
Joey Skogen and Kameron Ridley had two touchdown runs and Erik Larson threw for three. Two of those went to Seth Skogen and one to Dee Newsome. Josh Smith also had a touchdown.
Temple struggled for extra points missing on five of six attempts. Larson also had a pass to Newsome for a two-point conversion.
The Crusaders led 18-14 at the half but defensive adjustments at half-time shutout the visitors for the remainder of the game.
"We moved from a four of five man front to a six man front," Temple head coach Steve Beard said. "We just had the wrong skeme in the first half."
Temple opened the second half with a 75 yard touchdown pass from Erik Larson to Seth Skogen. The Crusaders went on to score three more times in the third quarter.
"We felt like we missed an opportunity to score at the end of the first half," Beard said. "So getting that touchdown to open the second half was big."
Temple will face off with Trousdale County next week. The game may be played on Thursday at Finley Stadium.
Temple is in just their fourth year as a varsity time and have put together a memorable season.
"We thought making the playoffs was a pretty reasonable goal," Beard said thinking back to the beginning of the season. "But going undefeated was an added bonus. We knew we had some talent but we also knew the region teams would give us fits."
Temple finished with 500 yards on offense, 337 of those coming on the ground. Erik Larson threw for 163 yards.
Scoring Summary:
1st quarter
TT- Joey Skogen 45-yard run (kick no good)
2nd quarter
TT- Dee Newsome 44-yard pass from Eric Larson (kick no good)
M- 10-yard run by Corey Miller (kick good)
TT- Kameron Ridley 49-yard run (2pt conv no good)
M- 1 yard run by Lewis (kick good)
3rd quarter
TT 75-yard pass from Larson to S. Skogen (kick no good)
TT 11-yard run by Joey Skogen (kick no good)
TT 30-yard pass from Larson to S. Skogen (kick no good)
TT Josh Smith 61-yard run (two pt conversion good from Larson to Newsome)
4th
TT 34-yard run by Kameron Ridley (kick good)
Temple offensive front.
- Photo2 by Greg Davick