TIGER COMEBACK FALLS SHORT 47-39

Friday the 4th had a Friday the 13th finale.

In its season opener last night, Cape Girardeau Central came back from a near-death experience to throw a scare into Columbia-Hickman before succumbing 47-39 in a wild game at Houck Stadium.

The Tigers trailed 41-19 early in the third quarter but pulled to within eight points in the final minute of the game on Emmanuel Harris' two-yard touchdown run.

Harris recovered the ensuing on-side kickoff with 40 seconds left, but Central quarterback Frank McGinty was picked off by Dustin Turner with 26 seconds left to end the comeback.

"Our kids never quit," Central coach Jerry Dement said. "They made it a game."

Demarco Williams pulled double duty for the game's first score. Williams recovered a Hickman fumble at the Kewpies' 44-yard line, and six plays later, ran five yards off the left corner for a 7-0 Central lead with 5:18 left in the first quarter.

For the next two quarters, however, the Tigers were Whitesided.

Using double wing and double slot formations rather than the standard I-formation they showcased in their Jamboree, the Kewpies ran wild on Central.

Danny Perry inflicted the first wound, bootlegging 74 yards for a touchdown with 4:29 left in the first quarter.

Four minutes later Perry dumped a short pass off to running back Brandon Hobbs, who shook a tackle and rambled 47 yards for a 14-7 Hickman lead with 8 seconds left in the first quarter.

After a Tiger fumble deep in Kewpies territory, Hickman drove 85 yards in five plays, capped by fullback Jake Whitesides' 42-yard run off left tackle.

Harris brought the Tigers back to within 21-13 with 6:09 left in the first half, and set up Chris Allen's 7-yard touchdown reception five minutes later with a 40-yard run, but after each of those scores, Whiteside found the endzone, on runs of 1 and 56 yards.

At the half, Hickman led 34-19. Whitesides had 179 yards on 16 carries.

The nail in the proverbial coffin was delivered by Perry with a 7-yard run after a long drive with 5:24 left in the third quarter, but it didn't hold.

McGinty revived the Tigers, throwing a 35-yard touchdown pass to Allen with 2:09 left in the third, and then running for a 2-yard touchdown with 11:46 left in the fourth quarter to make it 41-31.

After a Whitesides 2-yard run with 3:10 left in the fourth quarter made it 47-31, the Tigers came back again, moving down the field with the passing combo of McGinty-to-Allen and scoring on a 2-yard run by Harris.

"At halftime, we knew what we had to do," said McGinty, who was 24-for-41 for 303 yards. "We had been watching film on them and we knew we could throw the ball. they had loose coverage on the wideouts."

"But at the end time ran out."