MAY – In front of an overflow homecoming crowd Friday night, the Class A Division I No. 1 May Tigers accomplished a first for the 2021 season as they recorded their initial shutout with a 55-0 victory over the Newcastle Bobcats.
While May (6-0) eclipsed 400 points scored on the season in the win, the Tiger defense turned in their most complete performance to date, yielding just 84 yards, forcing two turnovers and scoring a defensive touchdown for the sixth straight game.
Newcastle (3-2) entered the contest averaging 57 points a game and had scored no fewer than 47 in any outing this season.
“We asked the kids before the game to clean up defensive miscues and do a better job of blocking from all positions,” said May 18th-year head coach Craig Steele. “I told Coach (Chad) Dahl, we talked about it, and we played at about 98 percent. We still had a miscue here or there, a tackle we didn’t like, a couple of offensive miscues, but for the most part I thought we played pretty well.”
The Tigers finished with 238 yards of total offense – 161 rushing and 77 passing – on 14 snaps, and did commit one turnover. However, Kaden Halk scored on a 63-yard carry on the night’s first snap, and May had tallied all the points it would need.
Halk also intercepted two passes, including a 51-yard pick six that made the score 47-0 with 9:03 left in the first half.
“That’s a big deal for us and honestly it’s a big part of who we are at this point in the season six games in,” said Steele, whose team has scored eight defensive touchdowns. “As long as our defense plays well I feel like we have enough offensive firepower that we’ll be in pretty much every game.”
Aside from giving up 80 points in a 104-80 win over defending state champion Sterling City in Week 2, the Tigers have yielded 42 points the rest of the season. All told, May is now allowing an average of 20 points per game with 15 takeaways.
The Tigers led 23-0 before Newcastle (3-2) registered its initial first down of the contest.
Following Halk’s scoring sprint to start the contest, Avery Williford added a 14-yard scoring jaunt, then caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Luke McKenzie.
Later in the first quarter, Blake Harrell and Damian Salinas connected on a 24-yard touchdown pass and Harrell tacked on a 24-yard scoring sprint as the Tigers built a 39-0 lead after one quarter.
Along with Halk’s pick six in the second quarter, Salinas scored on a 13-yard carry with 5:47 to go to cap the scoring.
Halk finished with a team-high 67 yards on the ground followed by Harrell with 29, McKenzie with 22, Kayson King with 16, Williford with 14, and Salinas with 13 yards.
Harrell completed all three of his passes for 53 yards while McKenzie’s one completion in two attempts went for 24 yards. Salinas grabbed two receptions for 33 yards, Williford caught a 24-yarder and McKenzie snared a 20-yard reception.
The Tigers’ quest for a sixth consecutive district champion begins at home next week when Gorman (4-1) – a 44-42 winner over Perrin-Whitt Friday night – visits in the 13-A Division I opener.
“I’m really happy with where we’re at,” Steele said. “We lost a lot of kids off last year’s team and we had kids we weren’t 100 percent sure about, but we’re getting closer to that 100 percent. We’re getting better every week, but district starts next week and every team in our district is better than they were last year. We really have to buckle down because we can’t afford to be lackadaisical now.”
