What had been a wild night was almost a wild ending. But Carl Junction safety Michael Elbert was having none of it.
Had he not wrestled the football away from receiver Kenny Chambers with 18 seconds left in the game, securing an interception, the Bulldogs might have gone down to the Willard Tigers on Friday night on a 64-yard, game-winning touchdown pass.
“We just wanted to finish them off,” Elbert said after Carl Junction held on for a 24-20 victory, having rallied from a 20-7 halftime deficit.
More on the comeback in a minute, because the decisive play was a spectacle unto itself.
Chambers already had hauled in 17- and 31-yard touchdown passes in the opening half. With the game on the line, he then ran a post route – with the cornerback biting on quarterback Quinton Batson’s pump-fake — and leaped in stride for the ball at the 25. No other defender was around to stop the play besides Elbert.
This on a drive that began on Willard’s own 6 with less than a minute to play.
“It would have been a whole different outcome had I caught it,” said Chambers, who suffered a cramp in his right calf muscle on the play but might have reached the end zone because Elbert fell to the ground. “But No. 12 (Elbert) is a really great player. He was spying me all night.”
Said Elbert, “I don’t think we came out and played good in the first half, and we made a statement in the second half that we aren’t that type of team.”
Friday had just about everything.
In fact, Elbert’s interception only three minutes after Willard had marched from its own 5 to the Carl Junction 5 before a poor snap on fourth-and-goal led to a turnover on downs. That Willard drive had consumed 11 minutes of clock and covered 19 plays.
But the key to Friday was Carl Junction’s second-half surge as the Bulldogs scored 17 third-quarter points, all after a halftime pep talk.
Zay’Shawn West’s interception on the fourth play of the third quarter, and Rayquion West’s 12-yard touchdown run on the next play kick-started the huge rally.
The Bulldogs forced a fumble on the next series at the Willard 33, and they reached the end zone nine plays later on Keaton Taber’s 5-yard TD pass to Dayton McIntosh. Another defensive stand then set up Keagan Peters’ 36-yard field goal late in the third quarter.
“We just put our mind on that we needed to come out with a W,” Zay’Shawn Weston said of the halftime atmosphere. “We had to step it up and make a statement.”
Or, as Rayquion told some teammates while walking out of the locker room for the second half, “We’ve got to step it up this half if we want to win.”
In the opening half, Willard took advantage of turnovers and established itself in the process.
A holding penalty wiped out Elbert’s 92-yard TD on the opening kickoff. Then, only three plays later, an interception by Willard set up the Tigers for a Batson-to-Chambers, 17-yard TD pass in the far corner of the end zone. The two hooked up again for a 31-yard TD strike just 22 seconds before halftime – three plays after recovering a muffed punt.
It was 20-7 at that point, with Willard having run 44 plays to Carl Junction’s 25.
“We were very flat and lethargic in the first half. We were our own worst enemy,” Carl Junction coach Doug Buckmaster said, and later added, “You talk about overcoming adversity. We faced a ton of it.”
Taber finished 10-of-19 passing for 103 yards, and Rayquion Weston rushed for 97 yards on 19 carries. Willard was led by Batson, who was 11 of 21 passing for 152 yards and two TDs.
Overall, it was another missed opportunity for Willard (1-6). On its 19-play, fourth-quarter drive, the Tigers converted four third downs – Chambers was sidelined, already nursing the calf muscle – only to see their final four running plays inside the 11 go nowhere.
Taber finished 10-of-19 passing for 103 yards and two TD passes, and Rayquion Weston rushed for 97 yards on 19 carries. Willard (1-6) was led by Batson, who was 11 of 21 passing for 152 yards, most of those yards to Chambers.
“In five games, with two or three minutes to go, we are in the lead or trying to take the lead,” Willard coach Brock Roweton said. “We are playing really good football, and tonight we played it even longer. We’ve just got to stop our six- or seven-minute lulls in games. … Every week, we come out ready to play and play really good football. If we do that long enough, good things will happen in the final stretch.”
