CAIRO, Ga. — The Cairo Syrupmakers took the Troup Tigers to the wire Friday night at West Thomas Stadium, but came up short 20-17.

The Tigers advance to a semifinal next Friday night to face Blessed Trinity.

“I thought we hung in there with Troup all night and gave them a great game. We just made too many mistakes and this time of the year, that will get you beat against good teams,” said Syrupmaker coach Steve DeVoursney.

The visiting Tigers (12-1) took the opening kickoff and drove it 80 yards, the final 55 yards on a big pass play from Troup quarterback Kobe Hudson to Jamari Thrash, after the PAT, the Tigers led 7-0 with 9:04 to go in the first quarter.

The Syrupmakers (10-3) answered on a 10-yard run by Nick Gosier one minute into the second quarter, to tie the game at seven after Noah Jones’ PAT.

Jones added a 46-yard field goal with 1:13 to play in the half after a Tiger turnover to put the Syrupmakers up 10-7. The Syrupmakers had a 49 yard field goal blocked just before the half. 

Cairo had another field goal attempt blocked in the third quarter and then Jones’ next attempt missed the mark from 35 yards out.  

“You hate to miss opportunities to put points up on the board, but we had three starters missing from our field goal team, which created some execution problems on the attempts,” DeVoursney said. 

Troup then took the lead on the first play after the missed field goal on an 80-yard run by Hudson to put the Tigers up 13-10 after a missed PAT with 4:30 to play in the third quarter. However, the Syrupmakers continued to battle back as senior Jamarcus Vicks scored on a 9-yard run with 3:22 to play in the third quarter to give the Syrupmakers the lead once again 17-13.

The Tigers regained the lead for good with 10:35 left in the game on a 3-yard pass to Jarell Smith. After the PAT, the Tigers led 20-17.

After forcing a three-and-out on the Syrupmakers, Troup got the ball back after Cairo’s Jones punted them deep. Jones had four punts for a 50-yard average on the night. The Tigers were flagged for their second sideline warning on a deep pass play down the visiting sideline and that backed them up 15 yards to set up a punt from inside their 10-yard line.  

With just more than a minute left in the game, the Syrupmakers started their final drive of the night from their own 42-yard line. Vicks hauled in a Matthew Peters’ pass that was good to the Tiger 35-yard line, but failed to get out of bounds. The Syrupmakers attempted to spike the ball and stop the clock as time ran out but a procedure call backed them up five yards and restarted the clock.

Then things turned bizarre. With one play left, and time about to expire, Cairo attempted a “hook and ladder” pass which was dropped by the trailing receiver. Troup begin to celebrate and the Syrupmakers picked up the fumbled ball and ran into the end zone for the apparent winning score. 

However, the officials left the field after the Troup celebration began, signaling game over. One official ran to the head referee and had a discussion near the visiting gate about the final play. After a 3-4 minute discussion, the officials turned and exited the stadium with no further action. 

The Troup Tigers then quickly exited the field without shaking hands, while the Syrupmakers and their fans remained, wondering what had just transpired.

“The game ended in a bizarre manner, no doubt,” Devoursney said. “We will go back and look at the film and see if there is a need to have the end of the game reviewed.  You hate for such a great game to end like that, so hopefully we can get some clarification.”  

Hudson led all rushers with 132 yards on 16 carries. Cairo’s Vicks finished with 20 carries and 86 yards.  The Tigers had 348 yards of offense, and the Syrupmakers finished with 293 yards. Troup had two turnovers on the night and the Makers had no turnovers.  

Cairo finishes the season 10-3 after an 0-2 start and claimed its 18th region championship school history.