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No doubt about it, East Rutherford seemed doomed to lose the County championship for the second year in a row to Chase after the Trojans Tyrell Boykins dashed 16-yards in the endzone with under two minutes left in regulation, but not so fast.
East Rutherford’s T. J. Watkins was the unheralded hero, completing three passes in the game-tying drive of 24, 22 and 12 yards, the last of which went to Donald Wilkins for the score to tie it at 21-21 with under a minute to go.
Chase missed a field goal in overtime and T.J. Watkins (161 yards passing, 60 yards rushing) looked to have scored a touchdown on third down and goal. Instead, Harrison Wilkerson kicked the game winning 30-yard field goal, his second game winner of the year as East stunned Chase 24-21 in the extra session.
Chase had the advantage as they held a 14-7 lead with under five minutes left with the ball in East territory, but a fumble returned by East Rutherford’s Cody Hall for 55-yards tied the game up at 14-all. The Trojans actually had the momentum and the game played out the way they had wished for most of the night.
The surprise of the game in my mind was Steven Holland, who came up with two big receptions for 75 yards. The first one was a touchdown to give the Trojans first blood as he leaped in the air to make the grab and run over a defender in the process. Blake Martin took away points from East in the third quarter, when he picked off a pass in the end zone. That seemed to set the tone for the inevitable result. Wrong!
Give credit to Tyree Lindsay and Charlie Perez for their efforts on the East defense, who combined for three sacks and were involved in a number of tackles. An emotionally charged Kevin Ruppe also played big down the stretch on defense.
Tyrell Boykins did a solid job at quarterback for Chase, but T.J. Watkins carried East in the final stretch to get the win.
Thomas Jefferson fell 64-12 to Owen and R-S Central ended the year with a 33-6 defeat at South Caldwell.
Now, it’s onto the postseason for Rutherford County teams and all games are fairly close by.
In 1A, it’ s a big deal as Thomas Jefferson gets to host Rosman for the second time this year, but in the Gryphons first ever playoff game.
East Rutherford will head to Polk County, which East lost the last time to the two met in the playoffs.
Chase will travel to Shelby, which truthfully has never beaten the Golden Lions ever.
On the soccer field, Thomas Jefferson will host a second round game after getting a first round bye. Chase and R-S Central both made the playoffs and I will update their progress next week.
So, the Carolina Panthers got rid of General Manager Marty Hurney, but it still couldn’t keep Carolina from losing. They actually have played a little better defensively lately, but the latest Panthers game sums up the year so far. They went from dominating and up 19-7 in the fourth quarter, to down 20-19 in just ten seconds. What luck? Steve Smith slips and falls, while Cam Newton makes a designed spot throw. It happens. Chalk up a 1-6 start as a sophomore slump for Cam, learn and go on. Not everything is his fault and Sunday’s result wasn’t his either. Although, I didn’t like the play call since Carolina had the lead.
In NASCAR news, Jimmie Johnson’s run at title number six just strengthened astronomically after winning the TUMS Fast Relief 500 from the Martinsville Speedway. In holding off Kyle Busch in the final laps, Johnson took advantage of Denny Hamlin’s electrical issues and Brad Keselowski’s inexperience at the half-mile paperclip. Johnson leads the championship by just two markers with three races remaining this season.
This past weekend also marked Dale Earnhardt Jr‘s. return to the race car. He showed strong in the first half of the event and had a top ten finish in sight, until a crash with under 10 laps to go pushed him back to 21st.
