By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
For the second straight year, the season-opening Benton at Northwood high school football game turned on a big rally.
This time it was the home team pulling it off. Northwood snapped a four-year skid in the series, getting the winning touchdown with 1:28 left on a 13-yard run and dive by junior running back John Sneed and posting a 24-21 victory over the visiting Tigers at Jerry Burton Stadium.
While coming from behind was rewarding, said winning coach Austin Brown, the Falcons overcoming a first-and-45 at their own 10-yard line to launch the decisive drive was mind-boggling – and a matter of faith.
“It was about first-and-forever at our own 10. We believe one plus one equals three, which basically comes from the Bible where it says, ‘when two or more are together, so am I,’ talking about the Holy Spirit. When people believe they can make something more of the situation – and in this case, not the Holy Spirit but just faith in each other and hope, when two or more people are believing, we have a chance.
“So in that situation, we just said, ‘1+1=3” and believed in each other, and somehow we found a way out of that and got downfield,” he said.
A couple of pass completions and a pass interference penalty – the teams both had over 100 penalty yards, 124 against Northwood – helped the Falcons fly out of the coop and back into contention. A few plays later, on third-and-goal, Sneed twisted up the middle and dove just far enough to give his team the lead.
“We honestly thought he might have been short on his dive,” admitted Brown. Benton fans were upset when the ball squirted free apparently after Sneed landed. The TD registered and Alexander Williams capped a perfect placekicking night with his third extra point to go with a 22-yard field goal that was actually the margin of victory.
Benton stumbled out to a double-digit lead despite a shaky first half, said Tigers’ coach Reynolds Moore.
“I felt like in the first half, they outplayed us 90 percent of the time. Even our first touchdown was a bad snap by us that bounced around and we recovered in their end zone, so we got lucky there and it could have been disaster,” he said.
“My message at halftime was ‘we probably shouldn’t be ahead right now. We didn’t play our best half. They did. Somehow we’re ahead, so let’s finish it off and play a better half.’ We just didn’t. We got some things going, and stymied them a lot, but they would never go away.
“I think they outplayed us for a majority of the game, and for sure when it counted. We always talk about the little things, and tonight the game turned on those,” said Moore, listing several costly shortcomings and one glaring conversion by the Falcons. “Our defense played so well, I don’t want to hang anything on them, but they converted a first-and-40 or something. We didn’t give up any big plays until the fourth quarter. They did a good job keeping it close and we did not do a good job of responding in the second half like I thought we would.
“If the bus ride home is any indication, I’m encouraged. I didn’t hear anything. They didn’t say a word. That’s a good sign.”
Benton got on top when running back Greg Chambers recovered that fumbled snap in a goalline situation. Sophomore quarterback Malachi Zeigler ran for Benton’s other two TDs.
“What makes this especially tough is both sides of the football had a chance to put this one away, and neither one did,” said Moore.
Northwood’s Brown, whose team trailed by 11 in the closing minutes and by four with five minutes to go, was relieved.
“I’m a little surprised but very proud we were able to come back and do what we did in the fourth quarter.”
Sneed scored an earlier TD on a 1-yard run. Sophomore Duntravious Young caught a 45-yard scoring strike from quarterback Jaxon Bentzler to draw Northwood within 21-17, and made the clinching interception of a fourth-and-22 heave-and-hope throw by Zeigler in the closing seconds.
“The defense played lights out when they had to, especially in the fourth quarter. We just pinned our ears back. We expected to see their best on their first three drives, and we shut them down, which gave us some momentum,” said Brown. “We got after their quarterback pretty good.”
Keys in the Falcons’ defense were middle linebacker Kyron Gladney, a football rookie pressed into action two weeks ago due to a broken leg suffered by Northwood’s starter; along with Braylon Levy, Gauge Lummus and Christian Blackmon, said Brown.
Next Friday, Northwood is home against Peabody while Benton opens the long and tough District 1-5A race by visiting rival Airline.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com