Unforgettable Season Finale

                                         Tigers Lose "Game of Inches" 24-20

                                                By Kevin EckleberrySports Editor, LaGrange Daily News
   
LAGRANGE - The ball floated toward the end zone, where Troup’s Jacorious Cotton waited with space between him and the closest LaGrange defender.

Quarterback Jaquante Holloway put the ball right where it needed to be, and the Tigers appeared headed toward a remarkable come-from-behind victory in the latest edition of the cross-town rivalry.

LaGrange’s Brian Dowell had other ideas.

Dowell quickly covered the ground between himself and the receiver, and he got a hand on the ball and tipped it in the air.Not content merely to force an incompletion, Dowell made the catch while just keeping a foot in-bounds.

The interception, which came with seconds left in the game, preserved a scintillating 24-20 victory for the Grangers.

LaGrange (7-3) finished as the No. 3 seed from Region 2-AAA, and it will visit Perry next week in the first round of the state playoffs.

Troup (6-4) finished fifth in the region and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

“It was a great game,” LaGrange quarterback Rodney Tolbert said. “I love games like this. It was two good teams going against each other. It was a rivalry. They had a lot to play for, and so do we. I was happy with the outcome.”

Dowell’s play saved the Grangers.

On the play right before the interception, Troup pulled off a fourth-down miracle to keep hope alive.

On fourth-and-17, Holloway found a streaking Destin McFarlin down the left sideline for a 56-yard completion.

With the fans roaring and the players jumping, Troup walked to the line of scrimmage at the LaGrange 22-yard line.

The Tigers went for it all on the next play, and it looked like a winning touchdown until Dowell made the play of his life.

Tolbert took a knee, and the game was over.

“I felt like I was going to be able to get there,” Dowell said. “I saw it happen, and I tried not to over-react. At first I was trying to knock it down. And then I saw it, and I just caught it.”

So what were his feelings when he came up the pick?
“I don’t even know,” Dowell said. “It was unreal.”

It was a devastating loss for Troup, which fought back from a 10-0 first-half deficit to actually take the lead in the fourth quarter.

LaGrange turned to a bit of trickery for the game-winning touchdown.

On a first-down play in Troup territory, backup quarterback Jamius Gunsby took the snap from the center, and he flipped it back to Tolbert.

Tolbert then lofted the ball to a wide-open John Jackson for a 37-yard touchdown, and Pat Simmons’ extra point made it a 24-20 game with 7:11 left.

“We were saving it, and it worked good,” Tolbert said. “It was a game-changer.”

Troup punted once, but it’s defense forced LaGrange to punt, setting up the fireworks on the final drive.

A botched shotgun snap resulted in a 16-yard loss on first down, and the Tigers only gained 9 yards on the next two plays, setting up fourth-and-long.

Holloway’s pass was perfect, and McFarlin looked for a moment like he might actually take the ball the distance before he was brought down.

Troup’s dream was dashed on the next play.

“We fought as hard as we could, just at the last second, we didn’t fight hard enough,” said Hugh Rutledge, a senior linebacker for Troup. “But I’m proud of everybody on the whole Troup team. I love them.”

Troup head coach Bubba Jeter said the players did everything they were asked to do, but the Tigers still fell short.

“I’m disappointed with the outcome, but I’m not disappointed with the guys,” Jeter said. “We fought as hard as we could, and we threw everything we had at them. It just wasn’t enough.”

Troup took its first and only lead of the game early in the fourth quarter.

After LaGrange fumbled a punt, Troup took over at the Grangers’ 35, and they needed just four plays to find the end zone.

On a fourth-down play, Brandon Worle took a handoff, and he beat the LaGrange defense down the right sideline for a 27-yard scoring run.
 





 

 

 

 

 
   
   

   

   


     

    

Troup running back Jacorious Cotton (25) breaks a tackle during a run against LaGrange.  The Grangers came back to win, 24-20. (photo from LGD)

Nathan Latimore converted the extra point, and Troup was up 20-17 with 9:41 remaining.

On their ensuing drive, the Grangers faced a fourth-and-one situation at their own 34 and head coach Steve Pardue decided to go for it.
“I just felt like at that time, we had to take a shot, we had to make a play or we’d be in trouble,” Pardue said. “They had all the momentum.”

The decision paid off, as Ocie Salter shook off a tackle attempt at the line of scrimmage and raced 29 yards to the Troup 37.

On the next play, LaGrange scored on the trick play.

“When we got down there, that was the play we’d been holding in our pocket all night,” Pardue said. “I wanted the right field position.”

It was Jackson’s second big play of the night.

Earlier in the half, Jackson had a 64-yard touchdown run wiped out by a penalty, but he was still credited with a 34-yard run.

Two plays later, LaGrange scored a touchdown.It was amazing,” Jackson said of the experience. “This is my first Troup-LaGrange game to play in. You hope to make big plays in big games.”

Early on, it was a big play by Roland Rice that set up the Grangers’ first points.

Rice came up with an interception at the Troup 20 late in the first quarter, and although the drive stalled, Simmons’ 23-yard field gave LaGrange a 3-0 lead.

That advantage grew to 10 the next time the Grangers got the ball.

A 43-yard completion from Tolbert to Ivan Dowell put the Grangers in Troup territory, and two plays later, Dez Lovett ripped off a 39-yard scoring run, and the extra point made it a 10-0 game with six minutes left before the half.

Momentum took a major shift later in the half thanks to a big play by the Troup defense.

The Tigers forced the ball loose, and Rutledge scooped up the fumble at the 3-yard line and scored the touchdown.

Latimore’s extra point was true, and LaGrange’s lead was down to 10-7, which was the score at the half.

Troup may have had the momentum going into the half, but that didn’t mean much at the start of the third quarter.

The Grangers took possession at their own 36, and it looked like they had a touchdown when Jackson scored from 64 yards out.

Despite a penalty, the Grangers still had the ball at the Tigers’ 40, and they needed two plays to extend their lead.

Lovett followed up his 7-yard run with a 33-yard touchdown run, a nice complement to his earlier 39-yard touchdown.

Less than two minutes had run off the clock in the second half, and LaGrange had already scored a touchdown to take a 17-7 lead.

Troup was unfazed, despite beginning the ensuing possession at its own 5 because of a mistake on the kickoff.

The Tigers began to move the ball, getting four first downs to move the ball into LaGrange territory.

A sack and a penalty had the Tigers facing a third-and-long, but they came through with their biggest play of the game to that point.

Holloway rifled a pass toward the left sideline, and Lawrence Jackson came up with the catch at the LaGrange 40-yard line.

Thanks to a bone-rattling block by McFarlin, Jackson was able to go the final 40 yards for Troup’s first offensive touchdown.

Troup missed the extra point, and with a little less than five minutes left in the third quarter, Troup trailed 17-13.

LaGrange went three-and-out on its next possession, but Troup was unable to move the ball when it got it back.

On fourth down from the Troup 35, the Tigers punted, and a gaffe on the return gave them the ball in LaGrange territory, setting up the go-ahead touchdown.

It wasn’t enough, though, to keep LaGrange from winning its fourth straight game in the series.

“They hit us for a trick play there at the end and ended up winning the ballgame,” Jeter said. “But I thought it was a good game on both sides.”