Phoenix looking for more fantastic finishes
If you’re looking for a fantastic finish every week to a high school football game, apparently the Sonoraville high school football team is the one to watch.
For two consecutive weeks now, the Phoenix have had their games decided in the final seconds. Not minutes, not just the fourth quarter, but literally the final few seconds.
One of those closeouts went against them and one went their way and now that is just what they are looking and hoping for — a fantastic finish.
And we’re not talking about just this pivotal AAA region 6 game coming up Friday night at Ringgold, we’re talking about their pursuit of a fantastic finish to the season, which would begin with a victory over the unbeaten Tigers.
Two weeks ago, they led Adairsville 14-0 at halftime but the Tigers scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to win a 21-14 heartstopper.
But last Friday night, they trailed 14-0 at home to LaFayette before coming back with a 24-point second half for a rousing 24-21 victory over the Ramblers that was completed when junior kicker/foreign exchange student Ivan Agua drilled a 24-yard field goal as time ran out to keep their postseason hopes alive.
Thanks to the second half heroics of their offense and then Agua, who just joined the team a little over a month ago, last week, they still have dreams of playing at least an 11th game.
The Phoenix are currently 3-3 in the Region and tied for fifth place with LaFayette,
whose playoff hopes were dealt a serious blow with their loss to Sonoraville. And they really need to win their final two games against first Ringgold this week and then Coahulla Creek next Friday to get that 11th contest.
But before they can worry about Week 10 or even think about a Week 11, the Phoenix have to uber-focus on Week 9, which is this Friday near the Tennessee border.
It appears the top two spots in 3A Region 6 are locked up with the Ringgold and Rockmart headed to a showdown next week for the league championship
even if the Phoenix can knock off the Tigers Friday. Both schools are currently 6-0 in the league with Rockmart the only one among them who has lost a game this year.
Adairsville, which dropped a 49-33 shootout to Rockmart last Friday, and North Murray, which clobbered archrival Murray County, 55-20 at the same time, are tied for third and the final two playoff berth at 4-2.
Then Sonoraville and LaFayette are right behind them. The Phoenix’s Region losses have come to Rockmart, Adairsville and North Murray and all three of those teams are currently above them in the standings.
But they have one more chance to knock down one
of the teams above them and that’s this Friday night when they travel north to face the Tigers, who are 6-0 in the Region and 8-0 overall.
Ringgold may be running the Region table right now but the Tigers have not exactly been steamrolling people, having won three of their six conference encounters by a touchdown or less.
They began region play with a 31-28 win over North Murray and then before beating Coahulla Creek last week, they had a 2419 win over Adairsville and a 24-17 conquest of LaFayette.
The numbers though are more than solid for the Tigers, who have outscored their opponents, 336-86, this year, and
allowed just 71 points in six league games or less than 12 a game.
So simply stated, this is the biggest game of the year for Sonoraville. Just like last week’s game against Lafayette was the biggest one of the year.
And Fightin’ Phoenix showed they have not conceded a thing with that comeback against LaFayette. Down by two touchdowns at halftime last Friday after that heartbreaking defeat the week before, it would have been easy to just call it a night.
But that didn’t happen. Instead they pushed all their chips to the middle of the table, went for broke at every situation they had to, and eventually a 90yard interception return for a touchdown and a
field goal by a young man whose family lives about 5,000 miles away kept their thoughts of playing
in mid-November alive.
The Phoenix are 5-3 and their final two games will be on the road.