‘Ugly win’ has Tigers riding 2-game streak

The Green Forest Tigers are officially on a winning streak — and this time there was no real suspense.

The Tigers scored a pair of early touchdowns, then relied on their defense and running game to cruise to a 24-6 victory over Cedarville on Friday, Sept. 15, at Tiger Stadium. It was the second consecutive victory for Green Forest, which pulled off a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback to beat Greenland 56-52 on Sept. 1.

“It was an ugly win,” Green Forest coach Greg Tibbitt said Monday. “But right now, we’ll take them any way we can.”

As usual, Green Forest was led by sophomore running back Ridge Gordon-Swofford, who ran for 154 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries. Gordon-Swofford also caught one of three two-point conversion passes thrown by junior quarterback Mason Meador.

“He rushed for over 150 yards again,” Tibbitt said of Gordon- Swofford. “We just have things that we do off of it.

The Tigers’ offense also got a boost from sophomore Gabe Serna, who ran for 81 yards on 13 carries, caught a 19-yard pass and was on the receiving of a pair of two-point conversion throws from Meador.

“That’s key for us,” Tibbitt said of Serna. “For him to be able to run it and receive it a little bit, that helps out. It was probably his best game, even through junior high. He played really well, blocked the edge for us when we ran Ridge and had a couple of good receptions and ran the ball. He played really, really well.”

Altogether, Green Forest finished with 361 yards of total offense while holding Cedarville to 189.

“We had a lot of good moments,” Tibbitt said. “We haven’t been in those situations much. So it was good to get a solid win. I felt like it was ugly at times, but it was a good win for us, for sure.”

Green Forest scored all the points it would need in the first three minutes. After forcing the Pirates to punt, the Tigers took possession at the Cedarville 44 and needed just five plays to score. Gordon-Swofford carried four times for 41 yards, highlighted by a 20-yard run that moved the ball to the Cedarville 19 and punctuated by a 3-yard touchdown run with 9:02 left in the first quarter.

After a holding penalty wiped out a successful two-point play, Green Forest converted anyway, with Gordon- Swofford doing the honors on a swing pass from Meador.

Green Forest added to its lead later in the first quarter after junior Brityn Gilliam intercepted a long fourthdown pass at the Green Forest 30 and returned it 64 yards to the Cedarville 6. The Tigers were flagged for a block in the back that moved the ball back to their 42, but it was only a temporary. Green Forest drove 58 yards in seven plays. Meador hit Serna for a 19-yard gain from the Cedarville 19 and Gordon-Swofford scored from the seven two plays later. Meador threw to Serna for the two-point conversion and a 16-0 lead with 3:44 left in the quarter.

“I thought our kids played well,” Tibbitt said. “We just kind of played the roller coaster. We got those two quick drives early that were really easy for us. Then we kind of hit cruise control a little bit. Then we picked it back up.”

Cedarville got one touchdown back in the second quarter, but failed on a two-point try to leave Green Forest with a 16-6 halftime lead.

The Tigers added a 3-yard touchdown run by Gordon-Swofford with 4:48 left in the third quarter and Meador passed to Serna for the two-point conversion to extend Green Forest’s lead to 24-6.

Defensively, Green Forest picked off two Cedarville passes — the first by Gilliam and the second by sophomore Justin Ayala. Sophomore Jaden Kaler was in on 10 tackles for the Tigers, including four unassisted. Classmate Colton Fancher had 10 assisted tackles while senior Carlos Lemus and juniors Diego Martinez and Wesley Lopez each had one tackle for lost yardage.

The degree of difficulty increases this week as the Tigers open 4A-1 conference play against Lincoln on Homecoming Night at Tiger Stadium. Lincoln, which beat Green Forest 42-12 in 2022, is 3-0 this fall and has averaged almost 47 points per game.

“Really good football team,” Tibbitt said of the Wolves. “They’re kind of in the same situation we are. They’re trying to overcome the Elkins and the Gravettes and the Ozarks of the world, trying to battle in those spots there. It’ll be a big game. Homecoming for us, so it’ll be a huge game.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Tiger Stadium.