By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
Fast start, fantastic finish.
Airline stayed unbeaten, just barely, Friday night in the wild game everyone anticipated when Evangel came to Bossier City. The matchup showcased the state’s passing leader last year, Airline’s Ben Taylor, and Evangel’s sensational sophomore quarterback, Pop Houston. It met expectations.
The Vikings scored the game-winner with exactly one minute remaining – after Evangel had taken the lead with 3:54 to go – and held off the Eagles, staving off disaster with a stop four yards shy of the end zone to finish a 47-42 District 1-5A triumph.
Airline (4-0, 3-0 in 1-5A) got 338 yards and four touchdowns passing from Taylor, including the decisive 23-yard connection with Kenny Darby. They combined on a 55-yard touchdown that ignited an amazing spurt of three TDs in three plays as the focal point of a first quarter with a combined 47 points.
Evangel (1-3, 0-2) led 26-21 after the first 12 minutes, overcoming a pair of early two-TD deficits. When Houston scrambled 16 yards for a fourth-down score with 1:14 left in the first period, that was the first of three lead changes.
It was unthinkable that the teams would combine for only four TDs in the second half – or that Airline would stage a goalline stand, stopping Evangel on two downs a foot from the goalline late in the third quarter.
But with an instant classic finishing with a flourish, after a string of four series midway through the second half without any offensive scoring, Evangel punched first, Airline answered, and then held off the Eagles at the end.
“It was just a great night of high school football, maybe the best overall game I’ve ever been a part of,” said third-year Vikings coach Justin Scogin, who has been part of plenty of score wars since becoming Airline’s pilot.
“It really was a wonderful football game,” said Evangel coach Pastor Denny Duron. “I’m very impressed with the Vikings tonight, and also incredibly impressed with the Eagles. We came very close to winning.”
Not just four yards away on the final play, either – a desperate 37-yard heave by Houston that may, or may not, have been caught by Charley Abraham, who was definitely smothered by Vikings’ receivers turned defensive backs Jarvis Davis and Darby as the final horn sounded.
Earlier, on their pointless visit to the brink of the Vikings’ goalline, Houston tried to sneak in on third down — “I still think on that first one, I got in,” he said – and Evangel power back Dae Dae Drake slipped before taking the handoff on fourth-and-goal, and the left side of the Airline defense stacked him up. Later, an Eagles receiver had hands on a 36-yard pass at the goalline early in the final quarter, but couldn’t hold on.
“We’re a slip and a drop away from being really happy tonight,” said Duron. “But here’s the thing about the Vikings; if we don’t have a slip and a drop, they’re probably going to figure a way to score a couple more themselves. Those two plays were the most significant as we came down the stretch.”
The Eagles took their last lead, 42-41, on a 67-yard, eight-play drive capped by Nate Green’s 26-yard grab on a post route with just under four minutes to go.
Watching on the home sideline, Taylor was unfazed.
“I was telling the guys we had four minutes left, and we still had a timeout, and all we needed was a field goal,” he said. “Coach Scogin said he wanted to score, so that’s what we did. I’ve gotten better at keeping calm the entire game. The whole offense stayed calm. We went out and scored like we always do.”
Nine plays and 78 yards later, Darby snatched the last of his seven catches for 100 yards, leaping along the Evangel sideline at the goalline, outfighting a defender for the ball.
“I knew it was coming to me, and I just went up and got it,” said Darby.
Then it was Evangel’s turn. An 11-yard Houston-to-Green throw followed immediately by a 15-yard Houston scramble got the Eagles to Airline’s 41 with 19 seconds showing. The next play required another scramble, but it finished with an incompletion among three defenders at the back of the end zone with six seconds left.
One more snap, one more instance of Houston (345 yards passing, 121 rushing, producing four TDs) weaving away from tacklers, before he lofted an off-balance effort downfield toward Abraham, and it didn’t get the desired result.
Airline, ironically, prevailed with a clutch defensive play.
“We say all the time, we don’t just try to outscore people. We put together a great plan. The first half was crazy. The second half we settled down and played great,” said Scogin. “But 47-42 is good with me. We did a great job pulling it out.”
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com
AIRLINE 47, EVANGEL 42
Evangel 26 0 9 7 – 42
Airline 21 14 6 6 – 47
A – Ayden Baker 41 pass from Ben Taylor (Benjamin Jump kick), 10:08 1st, Airline 7-0
A – Jarvis Davis 29 pass from Taylor (Jump kick), 9:53 1st, 14-0
E – Pop Houston 50 run (Kaegen Kent kick), 7:05 1st, 14-7
A – Kenny Darby 55 pass from Taylor (Jump kick), 5:31 1st, 21-7
E – Demarkus Evans 65 pass from Houston (kick failed), 5:20 1st, 21-13
E – Kadarius Thurman 31 fumble return (pass failed), 4:31 1st, 21-19
E – Houston 16 run (Kent kick), 1:14 1st, Evangel 26-21
A – Micah Johnson 5 run (Jump kick), 11:04 2nd, Airline 28-26
A – Derrian Milligan 13 run (Jump kick), 2:48 2nd, 35-26
E – Ashton Dawson 23 run (Kent kick), 8:56 3rd, 35-33
A – Davis 4 run (kick failed), 7:09 3rd, 41-33
E – Safety, Nick Lopez, Dawson tackled Taylor in end zone, 0:12 3rd, 41-35
E – Nate Green 26 pass from Houston (Kent), 3:54 4th, Evangel 42-41
A – Darby 23 pass from Taylor (pass failed), 1:00 4th, Airline 47-42