By HARRIET PROTHRO PENROD, Journal Sports
(NOTE – Each Tuesday this season, the SBJ spotlights the staff’s selection as the local “Team of the Week.”)
Walking off the football field two weeks ago, Haughton head coach Jason Brotherton had a feeling he had never experienced in all of his years coaching.
And it wasn’t good.
“For the first time, I felt like our kids shut it down and quit,” said Brotherton. “That’s a bad feeling as a coach when your team stops competing.”
That was Week 10’s final regular-season game when Captain Shreve pummeled Haughton 42-7 – marking the Bucs’ third loss in their last four games and threatening their streak of making the playoffs for 25 years.
“I didn’t know what we were gonna get (last) Friday,” Brotherton said of last week’s first-round playoff game against the heavily-favored Airline Vikings. “I was a little worried about that.”
There were a few reasons to worry. First, the Bucs’ lackluster performance against the Gators was a cause for concern. Then there was the fact that Haughton had squeaked into the Non-Select Division I playoffs as the 27th seed out of 28 teams. Next, Haughton’s first-round opponent was the No. 6-seeded Airline team that had sailed through the District 1-5A season undefeated.
And finally, that Vikings’ team had defeated the Bucs 55-42 in their Week 7 district matchup.
“Before (last week’s) Airline game, I told the kids that I thought something good would have to happen early in the game for us to have a chance,” said Brotherton. “Then the opposite happened.”
Airline came out in its first possession and took the early lead with a 60-yard touchdown pass from Ben Taylor to Daxton Chavez.
Not the start Brotherton had hoped for.
Then something good happened.
“We had a couple of seniors who weren’t going to let everyone else shut it down,” he said. “The flow of the game fell to us. The weather was a huge factor. It didn’t affect us as much as it affected them (the Vikings).”
Two of those seniors who made sure the Bucs didn’t give up were quarterback Colin Rains and running back Tyler Rhodes. In a pouring rain and howling winds, the Haughton duo racked up 387 of the Bucs’ 390 yards rushing and pounded their way to a 36-26 upset over the Vikings.
Rains, who had 178 yards rushing just in the first half, finished the game with 218 yards on 26 carries while running for one touchdown, passing for two touchdowns and catching a touchdown pass.
Rhodes, who finished with 169 on 21 carries, had a 7-yard touchdown scamper that started a 29-0 scoring run that gave the Bucs a 36-13 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Standing in the pouring rain in the middle of Airline’s M.D. Ray Field, Brotherton tried to find the words to describe Rains’ performance.
“Colin . . . ,” he started. “He’s been hurt for about a month. He’s just a competitor. He’s one of my favorite kids . . . ”
The Bucs also got a gutsy performance from junior kicker Carter Ebarb, who had an undeniable effect on the game’s outcome. While Ebarb was 4-for-5 on PATs in the driving rain, it was his punting — keeping the Vikings deep in their own territory — that helped Haughton deny an Airline rally.
Ebarb’s 57-yard punt pinned the Vikings on their own 1-yard line and led to a safety that put the Bucs up 36-13 near the end of the third quarter. On the Bucs’ next possession, Ebarb had a 48-yard punt that forced Airline to start a drive on its own 2-yard line.
This is when the game got really interesting. Starting that drive on their 2, the Vikings went on a 17-play, 98-yard scoring drive that began at the end of the third quarter and finished with a 7-yard scoring pass from Ben Taylor to Bryson Broom that closed the gap to 36-19 two minutes into the fourth quarter.
Haughton fumbled on its next possession, giving Airline the ball on its own 35. Four plays later, Taylor hit Bob Patterson with a 40-yard touchdown pass – and the Vikings were suddenly within 10 points of the Bucs with six minutes left.
At that point, Rains took over and made sure the Bucs would hold on to their 36-26 lead. An 8-play, 54-yard drive that ate up time on the clock deprived Airline of a chance to rally. In the middle of the drive, Rains had a 31-yard run on third-and-14 that kept the ball in possession of the Bucs – who held on for the victory.
The first thing Brotherton planned to say to his team as the Bucs prepared for this Friday’s second-round home game against East St. John was this:
“For the rest of your life, when someone says, ‘You can’t do something,’ you remember Friday night 36-26. Nobody thought we could win that (Airline) game. Nobody gave us a chance outside of our own locker room.”
That’s quite a different feeling than the one Brotherton had a couple of weeks ago.
Contact Harriet at sbjharriet@gmail.com