Collins’ defense has made a habit of making life tough for the opposition. Last Friday, the Tigers picked up their third shutout in four weeks, advancing to the third round of the Class 2A playoffs with a 20-0 win over St. Joseph Catholic.
The Tiger defense shares our Week 13 Sports601 Covington County Player of the Week honors. Their continued success doesn’t surprise third-year coach Eric Booth one bit.
“Most of my whole defense came back, and that’s the reason why we’re so good right now,” Booth said. “We started seven guys on defense this year that started last year. Now we got them all clicking and on the same page.”
Three of those starters are middle linebacker AJ Barnes, cornerback Chris Keys and outside linebacker/defensive end Zyrion Thompson. All three had a hand in the Tigers’ most recent shutout.
“I feel like we dominated the line of scrimmage,” Barnes said. “If we stop the run, I don’t think you can throw on Chris Keys—the best corner in the state.”
“Everybody was on the same page,” Keys added. “Everybody did their part. We just executed.”
“Our coaches put us in a great position,” Thompson said. “They gave us all the information we needed to play well.”
Put it all together, and you get one of the Tigers’ most complete defensive performances of the season, according to Booth.
“We had a couple of big plays on defense and everything,” Booth said. “That probably was one of our best games on defense. We were making right decisions and making plays when we needed to make plays.”
Booth’s Tigers (11-1) extended their win streak to 10 games with the victory. They’ll host the defending Class 2A champion Taylorsville Tartars (13-0) this Friday night in the third round of the playoffs.
“We’re looking forward to the game this week,” Booth said. “We know the crowd is going to be behind us. We’re gonna have fun.”
