Smith-to-Hill ends Eagle-Tucker Classic

mbrown@sunmulti.com

 

The last minute, as always, is all that matters when

Northside High is facing Tucker in a playoff football game.

Now the Eagles, following a dramatic, emotion-charged 23-20

GHSA AAAAA quarterfinal win against the Tigers Friday at McConnell-Talbert

Stadium, must depart from the Warner Robins territory to a familiar location,

Ware County, for the 2012 semifinals against the 12-1 Gators. All 12 of their

wins are consecutive after a season-opening loss to Coffee County.

Ware County’s converted minor-league baseball stadium is

familiar to the Northside faithful for one good reason. The Eagles won the 2007

state championship – and at the time the pro- * gram’s 30^th win in a

row – in Waycross to add that trophy to the one won in 2006 at

McConnell-Talbert.

But Northside was about 30 seconds, one down and eight yards

from not making a coin toss appointment with the Ware officials (which the

other side won Sunday). Tucker High School, last year’s AAAA state champions,

fell behind the Eagles 16-13 at the 7:29 mark in the fourth quarter. Before

that, the Tigers did something nobody had done all of the 2012 season: take a

lead on Kevin Kinsler’s bunch.

However, Tucker reclaimed that advantage and took more than

six minutes off the game clock to do it. Beginning from the Tiger 25-yard-line,

lineman Kessler Sallette and linebacker Trey Payne made some key tackles, but

the Tigers converted the first down on the 38.

From the secondary, Horatio Drake went outside to stop a run

for 2^nd-and-6. Payne joined Darius Holmes for a hard-hitting play

and third down on the 46. Tucker was in hurry-up mode, and quarterback Juwaan

Williams rushed for that big first down into Eagle territory.

Two plays later, Tucker grinded out another first on the NS

37. Defensive end A.J. Banks got into the backfield for a one-yard loss, and

fellow linemen Austin Roberts and Anfirnee Chatfield did not fall for Williams’

play-fake. That put the quarterback down on the line of scrimmage, so Tucker

had 3^rd-and-11.

Williams did drop back, but had no intention of throwing the

football. He took off past the pressure and gained 25 yards. With the clock now

under three minutes, Tucker was first down on the 13.

On 3^rd-and-8 at the 11, Williams had all kinds of

room on the left side of the field to score, stopping that clock at 1:23. With

the PAT made, Northside trailed 20-16, which meant only a touchdown would

extend the season and erase memories of last year’s last-minute miracle win by

Tucker in the state semifinals in Warner Robins.

The Eagles had their share of lucky breaks on this occasion.

While one lost fumble spoiled the 2011 state title dreams, Tucker was the team

that could not protect that football losing it four times.

On the ensuing kickoff, the football went through A.J.

Booker’s hands and towards Keshun Hill, the 30- to 40-yard return waiting to

happen. Sprinting nearly 40 yards, Hill set his team up on the midfield stripe,

1:14 still available for a comeback. The next break on the drive, one that was

sure to see quarterback Glenn Smith putting the football in the air often, was

in the form of defensive holding on receiver Robert Davis right in front of the

Eagle bench.

Smith then connected with Davis, following a timeout, on the

sidelines for 25 yards. But the quarterback found himself having to run the

football the next two snaps, and Kinsler burned his last timeout on 3^rd-and-8

and 33 seconds to go.

The third-down pass was incomplete, but on fourth down,

Smith lurched his arm back, fired the football over the middle, and Hill’s

leaping efforts sent a full home side of the field into an emotional frenzy.

The play gave Smith eight total pass completions for 75

yards, and it was Hill’s third catch. John Tignor, a junior, had all kicking

chores on his shoulders due to the injury to fellow junior Isaac Rivera, but he

put the PAT through, the clock showing 24.3 seconds.

Needless to say, Tucker didn’t get quite close enough to the

opposite end zone.

Curtis Martin gained 149 rushing yards for Northside on 13

carries. Smith had credit for 22 rushes, but with a high number of sacks from

the Tucker defense, his net in yards went down to 47.

Each team also missed one PAT kick.

Tucker won the coin toss and gave Northside the first-half

option. Just like he did to set up the game-winner, Hill returned the opening

kickoff 40 yards to midfield.

Smith’s escaped the onrush in his first third-down

situation, and it was a 15-yard gain on the Tucker 38.

Tiger linebacker Justin Hughes was the first to hit the

Eagle quarterback for a loss, and that stalled the drive. Tignor’s punt just

barely creeped over the goalline for a touchback.

Roberts, one play after Tucker was called for a chop block,

flushed Williams out of the pocket and stopped him for a one-yard loss and 4^th-and-13.

The Eagles took over on a punt to their own 43.

It was Tucker’s defense providing the first breakthrough

play as Hughes tipped a pass intended for Hill. Davanta Reynolds intercepted it

and returned the football to the Eagle 24. Two plays later Williams executed

the play-fake and ran the keeper for a 16-yard touchdown.

Hill, seeing his club trailing for the first time 7-0,

pulled off a 30-yard kick return to the 44. With a combination of penalties and

runs, Northside was on the Tiger 30. But, on 3^rd-and-2, end Chauncey

Rivers got to Smith for a two-yard loss. Tignor again had a bad punt break

giving the Tigers a touchback.

At the start of the second quarter, Payne – who scored a

touchdown on a fumble recovery the previous weekend against Thomas

County-Central – took back Tucker’s first snap on the Tiger 41. Two penalties

would eventually force Northside to punt, but the Tigers lost the football

again fumbling on their 44.

Smith pulled off a first-down run to the 25, and the Eagles

benefitted from pass interference in the end zone. The Tiger defense was all

over Hill on a sweep run that made it fourth down on the 6. Tignor punched

through a 23-yard field goal at 4:04.

The home offense got the football back before halftime

thanks to a Roberts sack and a combination stop from Banks and Chatfield. The

punt went to the 9-yard-line at 2:10, but Martin found two holes for first down

runs of 11 and 31 yards.

Hill also gained a first on the Tiger 33, while Smith ran

the football to the 12. The Tiger defense didn’t break, though, with a big pass

deflection and two sacks to end the half at 7-3.

Tucker used its second-half option to take the first

possession. It almost was a disastrous start as Dominick Sanders, after gaining

31 yards, lost a fumble. The Tigers recovered on the Eagle 23. From there,

Williams followed his blockers off left tackle and scored. Tucker missed the

PAT, so it stayed 13-3.

Northside caught a huge break when forced to punt on its

first series. The football grazed a Tucker player, but Tigers just looked at it

as it rolled and people on the home sidelines were screaming for someone in

blue to fall on it. Someone did, and officials pointed in the Eagle direction.

But from the Tucker 23, the Tiger defense recorded three

stops for lost yards. Northside’s defense would hold as well, and the visitors

punted to the Eagle 27 with 4:24 left in the third.

Justin Burnam’s first catch converted 3^rd-and-5

on the 42. Davis also had a catch on the drive, but coverage by Reynolds put

the Eagles back in punt mode. Tucker had the football when the fourth quarter

began, and Williams ran for a first down on his own 25.

Northside defenders Edward Mathis and Chatfield, who sacked

Williams on play-action, ended the drive for a punt to midfield. After seeing

lost yards on the first snap, Martin blew through a hole and – with receiver

Brian Dyson blocking up field – earned a 56-yard touchdown at 9:15. Tignor

kicked the Eagles to within three at 13-10.

Though Tucker’s Yusuf Minor matched Hill in the kickoff

return game going 40 yards, it was all for naught as a first-down fumble was

picked up by Payne and carried to the Tiger 13. Martin, on a third down

misdirection call, scored his second touchdown in a row, a 10-yarder. He carried

tacklers with him over the line.

But the PAT did not go through, thus setting the

score at 16-13 at 7:29.

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