Sa vs. Pillow: Week 7

Time On Vols’ Side

GREENWOOD – Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick . . .

On one side there was visiting Starkville Academy, who after trailing throughout most of the second half was now leading, holding on for dear life on defense while nursing a precarious six-point lead. On the other was Pillow Academy, with the ball and void of timeouts, frantically trying to line up and score, mere inches away from the goal line.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick . . . each second so valuable, each so precious. For the Vols’ and their fans, the last few couldn’t run off the scoreboard fast enough here at rain-soaked Bill Davis Stadium. On the flip side, the Mustangs and their fans were desperately hoping time would somehow, someway stand still on this wind-swept homecoming night in the Mississippi Delta.

It didn’t. Time expired, Pillow never got a final play off amidst a sea of confusion near the goal line, and as a result Starkville Academy escaped Harry Houdini-like with a hard-earned 20-14 come-from-behind Division 1-5A victory Friday night.

“It was a crazy game, crazy ending . . . I don’t know that I’ve ever been involved in a game like that one, especially at the end,” SA coach Chase Nicholson said. “Fortunately we were able to walk away with the win.”

SA improved to 3-4 overall and 1-1 in the district. Pillow, losers of five straight, dropped to 2-5 and 0-3. The Vols have now won five straight over the Mustangs.

There are 86,400 seconds in a day, 2,880 of actual game time in a high school football game. And every single one mattered in this one. SA took a 7-0 lead on the third play of the second quarter as Luke Johnson scored on a 3-yard run. Pillow tied it 7-7 via a Pick 6 midway through the second quarter. The Mustangs extended their lead to 14-7 with a touchdown on their opening possession of the third quarter and carried that lead midway through the fourth.

That’s when the tide turned. Sparked by a fantastic 26-yard pass completion from Luke McKenzie to Owen Couvillion and a 31-yard run by McKenzie, SA tied it up 14-14 on a 4-yard run by Graham Hancock with 6:27 left. Pillow fumbled the ensuing kickoff, giving the Vols the ball at the Mustangs’ 32-yard line. Facing a 4th-and-4, McKenzie found Couvillion on a 6-yard pass to keep the drive alive. Then, on the very next play, those two hooked up again on a 20-yard touchdown pass that staked SA to a 20-14 lead with 3:29 remaining.

The game was far from over, though. After taking over on its own 39-yard line, Pillow methodically drove the length of the field, setting the stage for a frantic, frenzied finish. On 1st and goal from the 7-yard line, Pillow rushed for three yards. A pass on second down fell incomplete, followed by a 3-yard gain over the left side of the line by Ruben Martinez on third down – leaving the ball a few inches away from the goal line as marked by the officials. He was so close that several of the Mustangs’ players held their arms up in the air as to celebrate a touchdown.

There was no signal given by any of the refs, however. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick . As SA’s defensive players were slowly getting off the pile and back into position, Pillow’s offensive players were scrambling to figure out what to do next. By that time, it was too late. The Vols ran toward their bench in celebration, while the Mustangs, so agonizingly close, were left in disarray and disbelief over what had just transpired.

“I knew they were going up the gut, there was no doubt about it,” said Nicholson, referring to the 3rd down play. “I just didn’t know where. They did, and I thought he got in just based on where we were. We’re so far away, I couldn’t really tell. Fortunately, he didn’t, our defense did a great job of keeping him out. I looked up there was about 20 seconds, then I looked up and there was about five seconds, and they still weren’t lined up. The clock was ticking and next thing you know I looked up and it was about two seconds. Then I see zero, I hear a horn go off and somebody jumps on my back and I realized we won.”

“We had a lot of adversity throughout the week . . . it just seemed like it was one thing after the other all week,” he continued. “Then we get here and it’s raining. Our guys kept fighting through it, though, and they did it with enthusiasm and excitement. They were ready to go.”

Said Couvillion: “I was just hoping (defense) would get a stop. I saw the clock winding down, and nobody on offense had an idea what was going on. It seemed like it took forever for it to go all the way down, but it did and we were able to come out with the win.”

Couvillion was a big reason why. The junior wide receiver had seven catches for 82 yards, including the game-winner, to help the Vols overcome a pair of first-half turnovers and three missed field goals.

“He called a fade route to the end zone, and on the previous ones I had run a lot of little slant and end routes . . . that was my goal the whole time was to set him up on that,” Couvillion said. “As soon as I did, he fell and there was nobody around me. The offensive line blocked great, and Luke couldn’t have thrown a better pass.”

The Vols’ backfield duo of Hancock (16 carries, 88 yards) and Johnson (21 carries, 72 yards) did all of the damage on the ground along with McKenzie, who had 42 yards on eight carries to complement his 91 passing yards. The defense, meanwhile, limited Pillow to under 200 yards total offense and one touchdown along with the goal line stand at the end of the game. It, along with the special teams, also came away with four crucial turnovers.

“It was a total team effort,” Couvillion said. “It was a big win. We needed that one.”

SA is off this week before returning to action Oct. 11 at home against Jackson Academy. District games against Heritage Academy and Magnolia Heights follow to conclude the regular season.