By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
If two officiating rulings went differently, Parkway and West Monroe could have been tied in the closing minutes of their Non-Select Division I first-round playoff game Friday night.
But they didn’t. And they weren’t. Instead, after all but a few seconds of 48 minutes filled with bone-jarring high school football played almost exclusively between the tackles, the visiting Rebels held a two-touchdown lead and were running out the clock – until they weren’t.
West Monroe coach Kevin Davis didn’t like his Parkway counterpart, Coy Brotherton, fruitlessly exhausting timeouts, so with 6.4 seconds to go, Rebels’ quarterback Ryder Dejean didn’t hold the ball and erase the final ticks. He ticked off plenty of Panthers by dropping back and throwing a contentious 25-yard touchdown pass to Trez Davis that padded the final spread to 35-14.
That was the final frustration for a commendably calm Brotherton and crew, who were irked by the Lafayette-based officiating crew’s two pivotal decisions and stinging from the final insulting jab by the Rebels (we’ll get back to that).
West Monroe, seeded 21st in the bracket with a breakeven regular-season record, ended a storybook run by Parkway (8-3), which overcame disciplinary suspensions of several starters and losing their top two quarterbacks to season-ending injuries in Week 3.
“I’m proud of the year, the way the year went,” said Brotherton. “We knew it was a tough draw, West Monroe in the playoffs, that’s never fun. Told everybody all week, that’s not a typical 5-5 team, they’ve played the hardest schedule in the state. I thought we battled. We had chances. Things didn’t go our way tonight.”
Especially defending the Rebels’ running game, and as well, on those two calls that accounted for a 14-point swing benefitting the visitors.
West Monroe opened the game with a 33-yard touchdown on a reverse by Kavion Mitchell 3:31 into play, but as he crossed the goalline, a penalty flag seemed to signal a reprieve for Parkway. But the head referee overruled the side judge, who had called an illegal block in the back. No penalty; instead, a 7-0 lead the visitors never relinquished.
That was the first score of four in a five-possession stretch that put West Monroe in command. The next two happened in a nine-play sequence, with a seven-snap, 86-yard march assisted by a questionable pass interference flag in the end zone leading to Kedrian McNeil’s 4-yard TD 9:18 before halftime, moving WMHS ahead 14-0.
Just 39 seconds and three plays later, it was a three-touchdown lead; an onside kick recovery preceded back-to-back 17-yard rumbles by 159-yard grinder Renaldrick Myles, the second run going into the end zone.
Down three scores, the Panthers didn’t fold, covering 66 yards to fourth-and-goal at the 2. CJ Dudley got his seventh carry in the eight-play drive, blasted to the goalline, and depending on your view, maybe over it.
“Man, that was crazy,” said Dudley. “The referee over there, he said he called a touchdown, but the other referee said no, no touchdown. I was in. I reached the ball out. You can run the (film) clip back, I put that ball in. It would have changed the whole momentum of the game.”
Instead, West Monroe did. The Rebels covered all 99 yards on 10 plays, and 40 seconds before halftime, another Kavion Mitchell reverse raised the spread to 28.
Parkway fought back, this time on three throws from lacrosse standout-turned-emergency senior quarterback Gavin Ferrington to 6-foot-4 sophomore Gary Burney. The last one was on the final snap of the half, a high-arching 35-yarder that Burney high-pointed over a Rebels defender in the end zone. Dudley rammed in a two-point conversion and the Panthers, who were getting the second-half kickoff, were resuscitated.
Said Ferrington: “They told me ‘Burney’s just going on a go, throw it high and far. Throw it high and far.’ I put everything I had into it, and I watched Burney go up there and get one. We needed that bad. Guys were starting to get a little down, and that brought new life to the team.”
The opening series of the third quarter brought new stakes to the game. Parkway, which didn’t score on an 18-play first-half march, converted a 15-snap, 71-yarder. The third fourth-down conversion of the series, a 6-yard Dudley run, drew the Panthers within 28-14 – and if those two first-half officiating decisions were reversed, it very plausibly could have been 21-all.
“I thought there were three plays in the first half that didn’t go in our favor. Two were penalties, one against us, one they picked up against them that was a touchdown,” said Brotherton. “From my angle, we were in the end zone on fourth-and-1.
“Our kids still battled. You look up and it’s 28-14 with 6.4 seconds left, by the way. It’s a 14-point ballgame.”
Then the Rebels’ coach sought retribution for a perceived slight. His explanation:
“We were sitting in victory formation, and that’s what we were going to do, and he (Brotherton) called timeout. My theory has always been, we’re only two scores (up), you get an onside kick, you’re back in the ballgame.”
With 6.4 seconds left? “Don’t call timeout. Might have been classless, I didn’t mean it for it to be at all. That wasn’t an intention for anything to do that, but it helped to go (up) three scores, and I didn’t think six seconds, I wasn’t thinking about it,” said Davis.
The Parkway perspective was different.
“I can promise you Coy Brotherton would not have called a pass on that,” said Coy Brotherton, with a little disdain in his voice.
Leave it to two seniors, 154-yard rusher (on 34 calls) Dudley, and the Panthers’ plucky QB to provide a fitting postscript.
Dudley: “At halftime, I said, ‘this could be our last game, but we’re going out here, and we’re going to play our hearts out.’ Everybody could see.”
Added Ferrington, “We couldn’t execute fully tonight, but I’m very pleased with the way they never gave up.”
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com
WEST MONROE REBELS 35, PARKWAY PANTHERS 14
Rebels 7 21 0 7 — 35
Panthers 0 8 6 0 — 14
WM – Kayvion Mitchell 33 run (Hunter Fox kick), 9:29 1st, West Monroe 7-0
WM – Kedrian McNeil 4 run (Fox kick), 9:18 2nd, WM 14-0
WM – Ranaldrick Myles 17 run (Fox kick), 8:39 2nd, WM 21-0
WM – Mitchell 13 run (Fox kick), 0:40 2nd, WM 28-0
P – Gary Burney 35 pass from Gavin Ferrington (CJ Dudley run), 0:00 2nd, WM 28-8
P – Dudley 6 run (pass failed), 6:09 3rd, WM 28-14
WM – Trez Davis 25 pass from Ryder Dejean (Fox kick), 0:06 4th, WM 35-14
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – West Monroe, Myles 23-159, 1 TD; Kavion Mitchell 2-46, 2 TDs; Caden Wells 8-48, Kedrian McNeil 9-24, 1 TD; Ryder DeJean 4-1, Trez Davis 1-7, Luke Vallery 2-20. Parkway, Dudley 34-154, 1 TD, Josh Tell 6-59, Carmaro Mayo 1-5.
PASSING – West Monroe, Dejean 7-12-0, 150 yards, TD. Parkway, Ferrington 7-10-2, 90 yards, 1 TD.
RECEIVING – West Monroe, Davis 5-128, 1 TD; Sheppard Brown 1-14, Caden Wells 1-8. Parkway, Burney 5-87, 1 TD; Josh Coleman 1-4, Mayo 1-1.