Late TD pushes Bowdon past Gordon Lee
Tay Sheppard’s final run on Friday night wasn’t his longest of the game, but it was absolutely his most important.
Facing a third-and-8 from the Gordon Lee 21yard line with the clock ticking down under a minute to play and his team trying desperately to salt away a victory, Sheppard slipped out of a tackle near the line of scrimmage, kept his balance and found daylight to his right before scampering to the end zone to cement Bowdon’s 31-21 win over a gritty Trojan squad.
“Bowdon has been there and done that and that’s where we’re trying to get with our guys,” said Gordon Lee head coach Greg Ellis, whose team fell to 1-2 in subregion play (4-2 overall). “We played our hearts out, but we had a couple of mistakes here and there that cost us. But like I told our guys after the game, I’ll go to war with them any Friday night. I think (Bowdon) was a little surprised by us and if we just keep working, good things are going to happen.”
Sheppard’s run capped a wild fourth quarter that saw Gordon Lee cut the Red Devils’ lead to three points on two separate occasions.
After taking a narrow 10-7 advantage into the locker room, the Bowdon defense forced a punt and struck on their fifth play of the second half as Cason Parmer found tight end Daniel Gibbs down the middle of the field on a post route that resulted in a 53-yard touchdown.
The Red Devils (4-2, 2-1) would force another Trojan punt, but a long 15-play drive stalled out at the Gordon Lee 15 and Parmer would miss on a 32-yard field goal try two minutes into the fourth quarter.
Two plays later, Gordon Lee senior Drew Cobb - who came into the game as the state’s leading rusher - broke a tackle and raced 69 yards to pull the Trojans to within a field goal with 9:31 to go.
Bowdon would immediately answer with another methodical, timeconsuming drive. They went 65 yards in 15 plays - all on the ground - converting two third downs and one fourth down. The march took 7:08 off the clock before Aaron Beasley dove into the end zone to put Bowdon back in front by double digits, 24-14, with 2:13 remaining.
However, a 70yard kickoff return by Kannen Derryberry and a five-yard offsides penalty on the Red Devils moved the ball all the way to the Bowdon 10 and Cobb would score out of the wildcat two plays later to slice the deficit down to three with 94 seconds left on the clock.
But Gordon Lee’s onside-kick attempt failed and a 13-yard run by Beasley moved the ball inside the Trojans’ 25. The next two plays would net just two yards, but Sheppard had his number called on third down and put the game on ice with his second TD run of the evening.
Beasley led Bowdon with 26 carries and 162 yards, while Sheppard went for 146 yards on 16 attempts. He opened the scoring with a 46-yard TD run with 4:28 left in the opening quarter.
Parmer was an efficient 5 of 7 in the air for 88 yards and ran eight times for 44 yards.
Cobb surpassed the 200-yard mark for the fourth time this season by going for 203 yards on 18 carries. He also added to his state lead with three rushing touchdowns, giving him
22 on the season.
However, the Red Devils gave up 21 yards rushing to the rest of the Trojans. Quarterback Austin Thompson was 8 of 12 for 47 yards, while Derryberry had a teamhigh four catches for 23 yards.
After falling behind 7-0 on Sheppard’s first TD run, the Trojans chewed up over 9:00 on a 15-play drive that saw them march from their own 27 to Bowdon 15. But the Red Devils would get a tackle for a loss and Gordon Lee’s offense would endure back-to-back, fourthdown illegal procedure penalties before turning it over on downs at Bowdon’s 26.
The Red Devils would follow up the defensive stop with a 21-yard field goal by Parmer, but Cobb got free for a 70-yard pickup on the Trojans’ next offensive play. He would go around left end for an 11-yard scoring run on the very next play to cut Bowdon’s lead to three with 2:12 left.
“We just kept hanging in there,” Ellis added. “It just took awhile to get in a rhythm. But the kids competed and played hard. They hung in there and had a chance at the end and I really can’t ask for anything more.”
Bowdon play at Christian Heritage this Friday, while Gordon Lee will play at unbeaten at subregion leader Mt. Zion-Carroll.