By Russell Slaton
russell@themonitor.net

MALAKOFF–The Malakoff Tigers continued to earn their stripes in the 2026 season by beating a recent and persistent foe, the Grandview Zebras, going up 26-7 at the half of the Sept. 11 contest on the way to a 40-7 win, which moved 3-0 Malakoff up from No. 6 to No. 4 in the Sept. 14 Associated Press/Dave Campbell’s Texas Football poll of Class 3A Division I teams.
Germarquis Robinson got the Surfin’ Safari going between the Tigers and Zebras with a 5-yard touchdown run with 1:50 remaining in the first quarter. Joaquin Figueroa’s extra-point kick put Malakoff up 7-0. Grandview responded early in the second quarter, when Briggs Jentsch (whose brother Dane won two state titles at Grandview, the first against Malakoff in 2018) scored a 3-yard touchdown run. The Zebras’ extra-point kick tied the game with 10:03 left before halftime.
In those final minutes of the first half, Malakoff began to pull away. First, Tiger quarterback Canyon Marsh found Will Self for a 58-yard touchdown pass a mere 18 seconds after Jentsch’s touchdown, which turned out to be Grandview’s sole score of the game, with the loss dropping the Johnson County team to 1-2 in 2026.
Now up 14-7, Marsh padded his stats with a 56-yard pass to Adrien Chambers, whose touchdown with 5:22 left in the second quarter increased Malakoff’s margin to 21-7.
There was more. With 3:13 left until the half, Grandview’s punter was tackled by Ace Anding in the end zone for a safety, adding two more points to the Tiger total. Up 23-7, Figueroa notched another kick, a 22-yarder with 22 seconds remaining until intermission, at which point it was 26-7 in favor of the Tigers.
The situation became even more black and white in the second half. One minute, 45 seconds into the third quarter, Robinson broke free for a 49-yard touchdown run, with Figeroa’s fourth extra-point kick resulting in a 33-7 Malakoff lead. Marsh found Self again with the big bomb at the 8:50 mark of the fourth quarter, connecting for a 97-yard touchdown pass connection for the Tigers’ last touchdown of the 40-7 trouncing.
The all-time series between the nouveau riche Class 3A powerhouses is now tied 6-6. Grandview won the first six games of the series, with Malakoff now on a six-game winning streak of its own. The Tigers have outscored the Zebras 235-87 during its string of victories that began in the teams’ 2022 playoff matchup in the state quarterfinals.