CLEWISTON — Hendry County is Clewiston Tiger country.

On the back of an impressive defensive performance, the Tigers shut out the LaBelle Cowboys 53-0 on Sept. 11 to win the Hendry County Bowl for the second consecutive year.

Oran Singleton nearly took an early punt return to the house in the first quarter, but the play was called back due to a penalty. Despite the penalty, it was only a few plays later when Singleton found the end zone again on a perfect 35-yard pass by Michael Holmes. This time there were no flags. The Tigers went up 7-0 and it was all gas, no brakes after that.

The Tiger defense forced a fumble on the next Cowboys’ offensive possession and recovered the ball on the LaBelle 30-yard line. Dawnya Washington bullied his way through the Cowboys’ defense for a touchdown following that turnover.

By halftime the Tigers were up 45-0.

“Our guys were ready to get out there and play some football tonight,” said Tigers coach Pete Walker. “I thought they did a great job executing. We did a great job offensively mixing it up. Defensively we were able to get a lot of people to the football.”

Last year’s freshman phenomenon Chauncey Cobb wasted no time in showing he’s still building his resume. Cobb had a touchdown and an interception against the Cowboys and looked more like an experienced senior on the field rather than a sophomore. He should be a force for the Tigers for the next few seasons.
Overall the Tigers limited the Cowboys to just over 100 yards of offense for the game.

While this was the first game of the year for Clewiston, the Cowboys had opened their season a week prior with a 21-12 win over Evangelical Christian. In that game Cowboys quarterback Lawson Davidson had 200 yards passing and two touchdowns. Against the talented Clewiston secondary he was held to just 19 yards, completing only three passes on 11 attempts.

Next Clewiston will be on the road to face Wachula Hardee on Sept. 18. Hardee is 1-1 and coming off a 14-0 win over Fort Meade.