The East Marion Eagles learned a valuable lesson about finishing strong in Friday night's road game against Jefferson County. After boasting a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter of action, the Eagles made a couple key mistakes that allowed the Tigers to rally and claim a 32-29 come-from-behind victory.
Until that time, the Eagles had never trailed in the contest. After forcing the Tigers' offense to go three-and-out on their opening drive, East Marion capitalized with a 10-yard touchdown run by Jadarrius "Koolaid" Mallard to claim the first lead of the night, 8-0. Although the momentum swung back and forth throughout the evening, the Eagles seemed to always answer in a timely manner to protect their lead on the scoreboard.
Two drives after the score, Jefferson County answered with a big play on defense, scooping up a fumble by East Marion quarterback LJ Andrews and returning it 10 yards for a touchdown. A successful 2-point conversion attempt allowed them to tie things up on the scoreboard with only three minutes left in the first quarter.
After turning the ball over in the red zone on their first drive of the second quarter, East Marion's defense secured a big stop of its own, forcing a turnover on downs that set up the Eagles' offense in great field position. They capitalized with a six-play, 55-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by senior Ka'Ron Weary, and another successful 2-point conversion gave the Eagles a 16-8 advantage to carry into halftime.
Similarly to the opening quarter, the Eagles started out strong once again in the third. Weary scored his second touchdown of the night, this time on a 30-yard reception from Andrews, and an extra point from senior kicker Kristian Day lifted their lead to 23-8.
With their backs to the wall, Jefferson County fought their way back into the mix, reeling in an interception and capitalizing on great field position with a 35-yard scoring drive that put them back within striking distance with a score of 23-16 entering the fourth and final quarter.
Again, East Marion answered. The Eagles' special teams unit blocked a punt by the Tigers to take over possession inside the Tigers' 30-yard line, and they scored moments later on a 23-yard pass from Andrews to Chris Magee. With just over five minutes remaining in regulation, the Eagles owned a 29-16 advantage. What happened next, however, is what head coach Jerry Fletcher believes to be the biggest moment in an unfortunate fourth-quarter collapse.
"They gained all the momentum at that point," Fletcher said. "The crowd got behind them, and that's when their offense started making things happen that we had been able to prevent up until that point. That's why you have to play a full 48 minutes. They wanted to win just as badly as we did, and we let them back in it with a couple costly mistakes."
The first of those mistakes was a blown coverage assignment on the first play of the Tigers' ensuing drive, which resulted in a 60-yard touchdown pass to cut the Eagles' lead in half. Three plays into East Marion's next drive, Mallard was rocked at the line of scrimmage, resulting in a fumble that set the Tigers' offense back in great field position with under four minutes left on the clock. Once again, the Tigers capitalized, scoring on a 24-yard QB scramble and converting another 2-point try to capture their first lead of the night with time winding down.
The pressure was on. Trailing by three with less than a minute remaining, the Eagles had to force the ball downfield for an opportunity to score. Three plays into the drive, Andrews lobbed up a 20-yard pass that was once again picked off by the Tigers, allowing them to run out the remainder of the clock by taking a knee to seal the 32-29 victory.
With only two weeks remaining until the beginning of district play, Fletcher said he hopes his players learn a valuable lesson from the defeat, knowing how crucial it will be for them to finish strong and hold onto second-half leads if they want to represent Region 7-2A in the playoffs come November.
"I told them we're about this close to becoming a great team. The second half is what separates the men from the boys because that's when fatigue starts to set in and mistakes become easier to make," Fletcher said. "We can't afford to let off the gas. We can't stop pushing late in ball games because we only have 27 players, so it's going to take 100% effort from 100% of our team to finish strong and put those games away when we have the opportunity to do so.
"At the same time, we have to remember that — despite all the mistakes — we were still winning with three minutes left in the ball game. We did a lot of things really well, and we made a lot of good plays. We just have to get better at sustaining that effort for four quarters. If we can do that, I still think we'll be in great shape going forward."
The Eagles will travel to Jones County on Friday for one last non-district matchup with the Northeast Jones Tigers, hoping to grab their second win of the season and recapture momentum before diving into the district portion of their 2022 schedule.
