Jackets make final stand, escape T-Breds in thriller

Sep. 30—NORTH AUGUSTA 24, SOUTH AIKEN 20

Nine seconds on the clock, ball at the 15-yard line.

That was the situation facing the North Augusta and South Aiken football teams, both eager for a victory after brutal non-region schedules, Thursday night in the Region 4-AAAA opener.

South Aiken was attempting to complete a comeback after falling behind because of North Augusta's own wild rally that culminated in a DJ Curry touchdown run for a 24-20 lead.

Still, South Aiken had plenty of time on the clock and a pair of the state's most dynamic playmakers in the backfield.

That all led to one final play, as quarterback Terrence Smith looked toward the goal line for Tylan Creech.

Creech stretched to try to catch it in bounds. As he did, Isaiah Weathersbee pursued from underneath while LJ Tillman closed in from behind.

They hit Creech. The ball hit the ground. By the time everyone could turn their heads to the scoreboard on the opposite side of the field, the clock hit triple zeroes.

Ballgame.

That set off a wild celebration on the North Augusta sideline, as head coach Matt Quinn and the Yellow Jackets made a big step toward the region championship with the first big win for North Augusta's first-year head coach.

"Unbelievable," Quinn said. "To step into this job and step into this rivalry with these guys right here behind me, with this coaching staff that we've put together, it's an amazing feeling to see their hard work finally come to fruition with a win."

The game-ending incompletion was a rude end to South Aiken's (1-6, 0-1) last-gasp drive. Smith, banged up to where he needed to take some plays off in the third quarter, produced a few highlight-reel plays to get the T-Breds in scoring position.

He picked up five yards on fourth-and-4 near midfield. He had the T-Breds back on the move after a holding penalty pushed them back, and he tip-toed the sideline for a 21-yard gain to the Jackets' 25 with 16 seconds remaining.

Smith found Jevon Edwards over the middle at the 15, then spiked the ball with 9 seconds to play.

Then North Augusta made one last stand.

The Jackets (2-5, 1-0) scored the game's final 14 points after falling behind 20-10 in the third quarter, and the defense pitched a shutout over the final 22:55 of the game.

"These guys never quit," Quinn said. "Every game that we have played, we've been down at some point. And they never quit. They always fight. I'm just freaking proud of these guys."

South Aiken took its 20-10 lead on a 51-yard touchdown run by Smith on the T-Breds' opening drive of the third quarter, but the T-Breds fumbled on two of their next three possessions — one in North Augusta territory, the other at their own 27 — and had a punt blocked at their own 15-yard line with 4:45 remaining that set up Curry's game-winning touchdown run.

"Our defense had a heck of a game. Give it up to them on their defense — they played a heck of a game. They stopped us," said South Aiken head coach Chris Hamilton. "Of course, when we turn the ball over four times that doesn't help any. You can't turn the ball over four times in big-time games like that in the region and expect to win.

"That's something that we've got to get better this week. If we don't, then it's going to be an even longer season. We can fix those things. Defense is playing pretty well. We feel like we finally got them on track. If we can fix that stuff on offense, maybe we can make a little better season of this. We've got to do that."

Curry rushed for 125 yards on 25 carries, and his 16-yard scoring run gave the Jackets the lead with 3:53 remaining. Colson Brown completed 10 of 13 passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns, the second a 67-yarder early in the third quarter to Evan Waldhauer after Brown faked a toss to his right.

Edwards rushed for a game-high 132 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, and his first run of the night went for a 62-yard score midway through the first quarter to make it a 7-6 game.

Smith, hobbled since last week's game at Clinton, completed 13 of 16 passes for 138 yards and also rushed for 113 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries.

"He's our quarterback. He's a dude, man, and he's got to go. He was, like, 'Coach, I've got to go,'" Hamilton said. "We put him back in, and I don't know, man. He just wants to win. He's a competitor. But we've got to quit turning the ball over.

"Our guys are playing hard. They're playing their tails off. We've just got to win. I told them they've got to expect to win, they've got to quit looking for bad things to happen. When you live your life that way, bad things will happen. We've got to get out of that, and I don't know where that's come from."

Edwards' second touchdown of the night put South Aiken ahead 14-10 heading into halftime. He plunged in from a yard out after Ryan Lubeck took a shovel pass all the way to the 1.

The T-Breds added to their lead with Smith's touchdown run to start the third quarter, but that was the last of their scoring as the combination of turnovers and North Augusta was too much.

"Our defense did a phenomenal job of creating turnovers," Quinn said. "(Kevin McKiver, a former South Aiken assistant) and the defensive staff force that in practice every day. They teach it in practice every day. I'm just excited to be with these guys and go back to the locker room tonight and celebrate."

North Augusta visits Aiken, Region 4-AAAA's other 1-0 team, next Friday at Aiken. South Aiken has a bye week and will next be in action Oct. 14 at Airport.

NA 7 3 7 7 — 24

SA 6 8 6 0 — 20

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

NA — Colson Brown 11 pass to Taylon Washington (Jack Stevens kick) 7:00

SA — Jevon Edwards 62 run (conversion failed) 5:30

Second Quarter

NA — Stevens 26 field goal 3:44

SA — Edwards 1 run (Terrence Smith run) 1:00

Third Quarter

SA — Smith 51 run (conversion failed) 10:55

NA — Brown 67 pass to Evan Waldhauer (Stevens kick) 10:03

Fourth Quarter

NA — DJ Curry 16 run (Stevens kick) 3:53

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

NA — DJ Curry 25-125-1, Colson Brown 2-8, Taylon Washington 2-(-2). Totals 29-131-1.

SA — Jevon Edwards 18-132-2, Terrence Smith 14-113-1, Tylan Creech 1-2, Ethan Bentley 1-0. Totals 34-247-3.

Passing

NA — Colson Brown 10-13-139-2-1.

SA — Terrence Smith 13-16-138-0-0.

Receiving

NA — Evan Waldhauer 1-67-1, Taylon Washington 7-41-1, Amarri Wilcher 2-37. Totals 10-139-1.

SA — Tylan Creech 6-55, Ryan Lubeck 2-25, Ethan Bentley 1-22, Jeffery Jackson 1-16, Dabyus Ford 2-10, Jevon Edwards 1-10. Totals 13-138.

Interceptions

SA — Tylan Creech.