Tyner Stuns Silverdale With Late Scores, 28-27, In Opener

Just in case the Tyner Ram football program hadn't already filed for the patent rights to adversity, the 2025 prep football opener Friday night before a jammed pack Silverdale Baptist Academy crowd should all but seal up any trademark arguments for the stuff.

Hopping on a bus for a 24th consecutive road game since their football field was demolished 1,001 days ago, the Rams turned the ball over on downs four times, fumbled once, had two passes picked off and found themselves down two scores with a little over four minutes left. The overflow crowd was all but ready to celebrate Silverdale's first game on its brand new turf digs when Tyler Anderson happened.

The Tyner senior quarterback who has his own chapter on adversity after losing his sophomore season to knee injury before finally winning the QB job midway through last season, willed the Rams to victory with two late scoring drives, capped off with a two-point passing conversion with 50 seconds left to lift Tyner to an improbable 28-27 victory over the Seahawks last night.

After either running it or passing it on 52 of Tyner's first 69 plays, a cramp finally got Anderson off the field for one play on the Rams' final drive before returning to complete a pass and then run the final 11 yards to paydirt to pull Tyner within 27-26 with 50 seconds left. And from there, as if the riverboat gambler Christian Mainor needed any coaxing, Anderson had enough energy in him to implore a two-point conversion.

"I just said, man, if you believe in me, then give me the chance. Put the ball in my hands and lets end this game," said Anderson afterwards.

For Mainor, the third-year Tyner coach who still hasn't coached a home game at the program, it was a decision he has been well-versed in, having elected to forgo tie attempts at the end of the Marion and Rhea County game last season.

"I've been a hero once at Marion and a goat once at Rhea, but there was never any doubt we were going for it again. I'm just really proud of the fight in the guys tonight. They could have given up, and that's a dang good football team over there on that sideline, but we never got down on ourselves and everyone was accountable. It wasn't our best game, but there are glimpses of what these guys can do if we clean up some stuff. Just a great way to start the season," Mainor beamed.

"Tyler just plays with so much emotion out there, and it makes him nasty. A lot of times in games like this we cower, but we rose to the occasion tonight. The guys all played for one another," Mainor added.

Anderson wound up with 405 yards of total offense, passing for 205 yards on 14 completions and rushing it 30 times for an even 200, but it was an ad lib on the conversion play that proved to be the decider. The play was designed to find Nashawn Keel, but it wasn't open, so Anderson bought himself some time and found Gerard Allen all alone in the back of the end zone for the winning points.

"I like to think of myself as the top dog on this team, and that's no disrespect to anyone else because we have a lot of dogs, but I want to be that leader. I am that leader. We had some things not go our way tonight, but it was always on to the next play. The defense gave us a chance, and we took advantage of it when we had to," added Anderson.

Tyner had plenty of success at times, but Silverdale was always there to make a play when it had to through the first three and a half quarters. The Rams turned it over on downs at the Seahawks 40, 30, 7 and 26 and threw an interception in the end zone from the 12. Silverdale's Briar Bancroft was a one-man wrecking crew for the most part and caused havoc all night long to slow the Ram train.

Offensively, Silverdale came out hot as well with quarterback Connor Jenne finding Cannon Rogers in stride for a perfect 34-yard strike on the Seahawks second possession. And after a Luke Bowman interception set Silverdale up at the Rams' 18, Tate Standefer rammed it home from the four for a 13-0 lead with 9:00 left in the second period.

But Silverdale had issues with Anderson all night, the smooth running senior accounted for 70 yards in a 12-play drive which De'Aeron McNealy capped with a one-yard burst to make it 13-6. An interception by Martez Mitchell gave Tyner the chance to score before the half, but Silverdale stiffened and held them out from the 7 just before the break.

Tyner had a nice drive to start the second half, but Cole Carpenter stepped in front of a pass in the end zone and returned it 34 yards. That drive stalled at Tyner's 33 but the Rams fumbled on the first play and Silverdale rode the hard running of Cody Davenport to make it 20-6 at the end of the third. Davenport sidestepped a would-be tackler in the backfield and got the TD on a nifty 5-yard jaunt.

After exchanging the ball on the two opening possessions of the final period, Anderson got 40 of the Rams' 60 yards on a six play drive with McNealy cashing in for his second score from the one with 6:39 left to pull it within 20-13. But the Seahawks answered immediately with what looked like a knockout score, going 55 yards on eight plays, Standefer bulling in from the one to push it back to 27-13 with just 4:18 left.

Anderson had other ideas, though, getting all 70 yards on three passing plays and three runs, hitting Dion Edwards on a beautiful 27-yard pass at the very back of the end zone to make it 27-20 with 2:25 left. Tyner then executed a perfect onside kick that Zion Pinkerton recovered at the 49. Anderson completed passes of 5, 8 and 3 yards and rushed for 16, 5 and the final 11 yards to set up the conversion winner.

Silverdale got the ball back and Jenne was precise with passes of 13, 5 and 8 yards but McNealy was able to sack him on a blitz with the ball at Tyner's 37 to force the Seahawks to spike it with one second left and force a final hail mary. Jenne's pass was tipped and caught by Rogers but he was tackled inside the 10 as time expired.

"You see it a lot in the NFL and have to decide what you want to give up on the last minute drives like that, but (defensive coordinator) coach (Tyler) Manes called the blitz at the perfect time, and McNealy made a great play," Mainor said.

"We really uplifted each other out there tonight. When things didn't go well, we just picked each other up. I just knew I had to get to the quarterback on the call, that was all that mattered. They were getting close to field goal range, and honestly, I was starting to cramp, so I just said give it your all one more time, and I got him," said McNealy of the sack.

McNealy added 38 rushing yards but had a 53-yard TD called back for a penalty. Edwards latched on to nine of Anderson's passes for 140 yards as Tyner rushed for 245 and had 205 passing for 20 first downs and 450 yards of offense.

Jenne threw for 163 yards on 12 completions and Davenport rushed for 64 on 15 totes as the Seahawks had 289 total yards.

GAME SUMMARY

TYNER ACADEMY	0	6	0	22	--28
SILVERDALE BAPTIST	7	6	7	7	-- 27

SCORING SUMMARY:
1st Quarter
SBA 7:12 1Q: Cannon Rogers 34 pass from Connor Jenne; Jack Mauser (PAT) 7-0
2nd Quarter
SBA 9:00 2Q: Tate Standefer 4 yard run; kick missed 13-0
TYN 3:08 2Q: De'Aeron McNealy 1 yard run; kick blocked 13-6
3rd Quarter
SBA 1:00 3Q: Cody Davenport 5 yard run; Jack Mauser (PAT) 20-6
4th Quarter
TYN 6:39 4Q: De'Aeron McNealy 1 yard run; Lucas Thomas (PAT) 20-13
SBA 4:18 4Q: Tate Standefer 1 yard run: Jack Mauser (PAT) 27-13
TYN 2:25 4Q: Dion Edwards 27 pass from Tyler Anderson: Lucas Thomas (PAT) 27-20
TYN 0:50 4Q Tyler Anderson 11 yard run; Gerard Allen conversion pass from Tyler Anderson 27-28

STATS	Tyner	Silverdale
First Downs	20	12
Rushes-Yards	48-245	34-126
Passing Yards	205	163
Total yards	450	289
Passing (Comp-Att-Int)	14-25-2	12-23-1
Penalties-Yards	4-42	3-20
Punts-Average	0-00.0	3-28.3
Fumbles-Lost	3-1	1-0
3rd Down Conversions	9-14	3-8
4th Down Conversions	1-4	1-2

Individual Stats

RUSHING: Tyler Anderson 30-200, De'Aeron McNealy 14-38, LeCarrus Moten 3-3 (T); Cody Davenport 15-64, Jackson Deitch 6-25, Tate Standefer 8-14, Connor Jenne 4-3, Boone Perry 1-12 (SBA).

PASSING: Tyler Anderson 14-25-1 207 yards (T); Connor Jenne 12-23-1 163 yards (SBA).

RECEIVING: Dion Edwards 9-140, De'Aeron McNealy 3-24, Gerard Allen 1-15, Zion Pinkerton 1-8 (T); Cody Davenport 3-38, Cannon Rogers 2-74, Boone Perry 3-30, Tanner Bayne 1-9, Titus Hinkle 1-8, Braden Mullins 1-5, Gavin Brock 1-0 (SBA).

Records: Tyner 1-0; Silverdale 0-1.

UP NEXT: Tyner at Chattanooga Christian, Silverdale Academy at South Pittsburg.

(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)