On a humid night at Donell Woods Stadium, the Bradwell Institute Tigers players gave their coach one cool dousing.

The Tigers held off Liberty County’s second-half charge and held for a penalty-filled 26-13 win Friday night, taking possession of the Commissioners Cup awarded to the game’s winner for the first time since 2018.

And after it was presented to the Tigers, coach DeShon Brock got the icy contents of a Powerade bucket unleashed on him.

“It’s moving in the right direction,” Brock said of the program after the win. “It’s the first time these kids have beaten Liberty County since 2018.”

Chris Garrett threw two first-half touchdown passes, and Wade Cobb and Davyion Tillman added touchdown runs for the Tigers, who built a 20-0 lead midway through the second quarter.

Liberty, 0-2, answered with Carlos Singleton’s 2-yard with 26 seconds left in the first half. The Panthers cut the lead to 20-13 on Singleton’s second 2-yard TD run with 11:04 to play in the game.

“They came out the first couple of drives and made some pretty good plays,” Panthers coach Tony Glazer said of the Tigers. “They made plays when the plays were there. When we scored to get within seven, I thought we had a chance if we got a stop. Little things are stopping us from being a good football team.”

Bradwell (1-1) responded with a 74-yard drive, aided by two defensive penalties. Tillman capped it with a 7-yard run with 6:43 remaining.

The teams combined for 42 accepted penalties and another half-dozen were either declined or offsetting.

“It’s an ugly win,” Brock said. “I’m not satisfied with it. I’m happy we got the win, but we didn’t execute. We didn’t play well.”

Liberty County is off next week while Bradwell hosts New Hampstead.

For more, see the August 31 edition of the Coastal Courier.