Big second-half plays turn tide for Trojans

Gordon Lee head coach Greg Ellis readily admits that with a team as young in certain areas as his Trojans are, he’s never exactly quite sure what he’s going to get week to week, or even play to play.

But he’s got a pretty good idea of what he’s going to get from some of his seniors.

Friday night on Bobby Chappell Field, the seniors and a few other veterans rallied the Navy-and-White from a seven-point second-half deficit and moved to 2-3 overall (1-1 in Region 6-A North) with a 33-14 victory over Christian Heritage.

Two big plays, one on offense and one on defense, provided the sparks that turned the tide of the game as Gordon Lee scored 19 unanswered points in the final 12 minutes.

Trailing 14-7 in the third quarter, two false start penalties had Gordon Lee staring at third-and-20 from its own 24 when senior quarterback Austin Thompson fired a pass to the outside that was intended for receiver Hunter Hodson.

The ball was thrown a hair too wide for Hodson to grab and the junior only managed to get a fingertip on it. But instead of sailing into the Trojan bench, it landed right in the hands of receiver Kannen Derryberry, who was running a route down the sideline. Derryberry stumbled slightly after catching the deflected pigskin, but quickly regained his footing and hightailed it 76 yards for a touchdown with Jarrett Lassetter providing the extra point.

An exchange of punts followed and when the fourth quarter began, it was the Lions facing third-and-four at the Gordon Lee 32 when the next big momentum swing occurred.

Thompson, playing in the secondary on defense, jumped a route and picked off a Matthew Neff pass intended for 6-foot7 receiver Christian Koneman. He raced 70 yards the opposite way for the go-ahead score. The extra point failed, but the flow and energy of the game had clearly shifted to the home side.

“That one big play, the interception return, we just started feeding off of that,” Ellis said. “We didn’t play very well in the first half. We made too many mistakes. Of course with all these young kids, you never know what they are going to do. But the seniors stepped up and made some plays and that was the difference.”

Riding the momentum, the Trojans stuffed running back Reece Epperson on the ensuing first down and seniors Braden Jarvis and Patrick Howard recorded back-to-backs sacks that backed up the Lions to their own 1-yard line and forced a punt.

The Trojans would score just four plays later on a six-yard run by Jarvis and, after Hodson made an athletic play to pick off another Neff pass at the Gordon Lee 21 with just over 5:30 to go, Jarvis put the game on ice by shredding a would-be tackler at the line of scrimmage before scampering 87 yards down the sideline for the final score of the game.

Jarvis, held to just 35 yards on 10 first-half carries, finished with 18 hard-nosed carries on the night for 188 yards and three scores,

including a 23-yarder with 1:56 left in the first half. Thompson was 5-of-8 passing for 142 yards, while Derryberry caught three passes for 116 yards.

“He’s a beast,” Ellis said of Jarvis. “He really is and he wants the ball too. But we had some other kids shine tonight. (Austin) played a heck of a game and our line of scrimmage is getting better. We’re still having to endure some youth, but they are getting better.”

Neff finished 20of-31 in the air for 246 yards after completing 13-of-15 passes in the opening half. He led a 16-play, 64-yard drive in the first half that chewed up over 7:30 off the clock, capping it with a six-yard TD pass to Koneman. He also engineered a quick 75yard march in the final 1:02 of the first half, connecting with Zach Gentry on a 38-yard, fourth-down TD pass on a wheel route.

Koneman had 10 grabs for 108 yards, while Gentry had 89 yards on five catches. The do-it-all junior also ran 10 times for 50 yards, mostly out of the wildcat formation at quarterback.

Gordon Lee will travel to Bowdon this Friday, while Christian Heritage (0-4, 0-1) will be back home to take on Trion.