TULSA — Tahlequah High School head football coach Tuffy Thornton had to choke back a few tears as he ran off the field to hug is wife and child on Friday night at Booker T. Washington High School.

It was there that the Tigers improved to 2-0 in 5A-4, 2-3 overall as the Tigers beat Tulsa Central, 21-12, giving the Tigers a 2-0 start in district play for the first time since 2000 and won back-to-back games for the first time since 2002.

“This is what it was always supposed to be,” Thornton said. “The kids played hard. Our coaching staff has done awesome. That’s what I’m most proud of, the kids and the coaching staff. These guys work their tails off.”

After it appeared the Tigers would cruise to the win, they had to hold on at the end as the Braves threatened with two scores late.

Tahlequah held a 21-0 lead at halftime, but couldn’t find points the rest of the way, despite having the ball three times inside the Central 10-yard line.

Central scored twice, once in the third and once in the fourth, but failed twice on 2-point conversions, cutting the Tiger lead to 21-12.

The play of the game occurred with just over two minutes to go as Central quarterback DeMarco Cobbs threw a pass that was intercepted by Nigel Turner at the Tahlequah 14-yard line as Central was driving to try and get the game to within one possession.

The Braves eventually got the ball back, but with only seven seconds left.

“We knew they could score at any point,” Thornton said. “(Cobbs) is going to get loose. He’s a major college football player. Coach (Brad) Matlock did a phenomenal job having the defense ready for this guy. They contained him most of the night. He only got loose twice on us. I can’t say enough about him.”

The Tigers got the scoring started when Michael Crawford scampered into the end zone from 5 yards out to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead with 10:49 left in the first quarter.

Crawford played a big role for the Tigers. Not only did he have the touchdown, he also got 45 yards on the drive on his way to 187 yards on the ground for the game.

Tahlequah went ahead 14-0 on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Colin Scarsdale to Nick Perkins with 7:26 to go, then tacked on another just before halftime as Scarsdale hit another long bomb, this time to Dusten Knight as Tahlequah went up 21-0 at halftime.

That last scoring drive was set up as Blake Campbell recovered a fumble.

However on the first drive of the second half, the Braves came out firing.

Starting at the 25, the Braves marched down the field with the drive culminating with a 9-yard run by Cobbs as Central got to within 21-6 with 8:59 left in the third quarter.