Fourth-quarter rally stopped short as Athens loses heartbreaker in opener

By Jayson Larson Editor

WILLS POINT — First-year Athens Head Coach Paul Essary has said throughout the preseason that he wants to use the non-district schedule to prepare his ballclub for the district games that really count.

He may have an interesting lesson to draw up this coming week following the Hornets’ 21-14 loss to the Wills Point Tigers Friday night at Ken Autry Davis Field.

For three quarters, the Hornets (0-1) struggled and fell behind by three touchdowns. Then came the fourth quarter, when the Hornets discovered their passing game and rattled off a pair of touchdowns to make it a close game in the final minutes.

“I’m not going to make excuses,” Essary said. “I thought in the first half we played kind of tight. We didn’t play up to our ability. But I thought we played real well in the second half. We still had an opportunity to win the ballgame there at the end.”

The Hornet surge actually started in the third quarter, when the defensive unit stuffed the Tigers (1-0) despite Wills Point starting a drive in Athens territory. C.J. Tatum and Matt Jordan sacked Tiger quarterback Trent Jurica on consecutive plays to put the Hornet offense back on the field with 30 seconds to go in quarter.

The Hornets took over on their own 29 following the stop, and quarterback Carson Hutson began a 10-play, 71-yard march that ended with a two-yard Nick Monmouth touchdown run to cut the Tigers’ lead to 21-7 with 10:21 left. On the drive, Hutson fell into a groove with his receivers, hitting Randall Gamble on passes of 11 and 12 yards and then Courtney Whitehead on a 16-yard gain on three straight plays. Whitehead also had catches of 17 and 10 yards later in the drive to keep the offense moving forward. He finished with 10 receptions for 110 yards.

Whitehead’s 10-yard touchdown catch from Hutson with 7:11 to go whittled the Tigers’ lead to a mere touchdown and got Hornet fans on their feet. The score was made possible by a Sean Curley blocked punt recovered by Austin Fincher at the Wills Point 10-yard line.

After holding the Tigers to another three-and-out — a series that included Jordan’s second sack of the contest — the Hornets went back to work on offense with a chance to tie the game.

Hutson found Whitehead on a 14-yard gain, and the two would hook up again on a pass that took the Hornets to the Tiger 30. But Hutson was sacked on two straight plays, and his fourth-down pass over the middle drew contact on Gamble, the receiver, but the official ruled the pass was uncatchable.

The Hornets missed another scoring opportunity in the first quarter when Kendall Sanders recovered a muffed punt at the Tiger 17. The offense couldn’t capitalize, though, and Zabdiel Mota’s 34-yard field goal attempt sailed wide.

Two plays later, Jurica found Will Monning over the middle of the field on a short screen pass that he turned into an 80-yard touchdown – setting the pace for a first half of passing success for the Tigers. The combination of Jurica to his favorite target, 6-3 wide receiver Steven Cunigan, tortured the Hornet secondary for the rest of the first half. Cunigan caught seven passes for 107 yards in the half, including three straight first down receptions of 18, 10 and 14 yards that set up Will Girdley’s one-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter to make it 14-0.

TIGERS 21, HORNETS 14

AHS WPHS

First Downs 11 11

Rushing Yards -18 0

Passing Yards 143 217

Total Yards 125 217

Passes Attempted 25 18

Passes Completed 13 10

Interceptions 1 0

Fumbles/Lost 2/0 2/2

Penalties 5/25 6/47

Punts 4/25.5 5/28.2

Score By Quarters

Athens 0 0 0 14 — 14

Wills Point 6 8 7 0 —21

Scoring Summary

WPHS — Will Monning 80 pass from Trent Jurica (run fails)

WPHS — Will Girdley 1 run (Girdley pass from Jurica)

WPHS — Jurica 6 run (Evann Padilla kick)

AHS — Nick Monmouth 2 run (Zabdiel Mota kick)

AHS — Courtney Whitehead 10 pass from Carson Hutson (Mota kick)