Local Sports Journal
The defending West Michigan Conference champion and state semi-finalist Shelby Tigers finally got into the win column Friday with a shootout 46-30 victory over Montague in league action.
The hero of the night turned out to be Tiger running back Zach Stuberg, whose two long touchdown runs in the second half made the difference for Shelby.
Montague grabbed a 14-7 lead after one quarter, thanks to a pair of scoring passes from quarterback Jacob Buchberger to tight end Mike Meekhof, for 39 and 28 yards, respectively.
Juan Cavazos had a one-yard touchdown for the Tigers in the first quarter.
Shelby’s Gavin Porter started the second quarter scoring with a 14-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 14.
Eddie Caviedes put Montague back in the lead with a one-yard touchdown burst, but Shelby answered with touchdown runs of four and nine yards by Cavazos to take a 28-21 halftime lead.
Caviedes opened the second half with a 27 yard field goal to bring Montague within 28-24. But that’s as close as the Wildcats would get.
Shelby’s Stuberg nailed down the victory with a 51-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, and a 52-yard scoring burst in the fourth.
Shelby (1-3, 1-2) added two late safeties. Montague dropped to 0-4 overall and 0-3 in league play.
