By Hunter Jones, Jackson County Sentinel

PISGAH – Sand Rock’s season-opening football game turned into a track meet.

In a back-and-forth game featuring two lead changes in the final minute and a half, the visiting Wildcats rallied in the closing seconds to defeat the Pisgah Eagles 48-42 Friday night.

The game started with Pisgah senior Parker Law returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Sand Rock (1-0) then scored 20 straight points to end the first quarter.

Pisgah managed to even the score in the second quarter before Sand Rock scored another 12 straight points to take a 32-20 lead into halftime.

The second half started with Sand Rock losing a fumble and Pisgah turning that turnover into points, with freshman Legion McCrary scoring a three-yard touchdown to put the game within six. The Wildcats put themselves up 14 near the end of the third quarter on a 17-yard run from junior Trace Haygood.

In the fourth quarter, Pisgah scored a touchdown and got the two-point conversion to put the game within six.

On the ensuing kickoff, Pisgah freshman Luke Gilbert recovered an onside pooch kick to give Pisgah (0-1) the ball back on the Sand Rock 42-yard line. Sand Rock recovered a fumble three plays later, but punted the ball back to the Eagles.

Pisgah then drove 64 yards to score the game tying touchdown with 1:29 to go in the game. On the two-point conversion, sophomore quarterback Mason Holcomb found senior Rhyan Barrett on a pass to take a 42-40 lead.

After a kick return set up Sand Rock at their own 39-yard line, the Wildcats had 1:18 to either score a touchdown or kick a game-winning field goal.

Utilizing the sidelines, the Wildcats managed to pick up yardage in a hurry before scoring on a 10-yard pass from junior quarterback Ace Ashley to junior Logan Crider for a touchdown with 27.9 seconds left. Haygood ran in the two-point conversion, leaving Pisgah with less than half a minute to tie the game, down 48-42.

Law got a good kick return to set up Pisgah past midfield with 20.8 seconds left. As Holcomb kept trying to hit a deep pass, just barely missing on a couple of them, the clock kept running down. Finally, on fourth down, with 1.9 seconds remaining, Pisgah had to throw up a prayer to try and tie the game again.

The Eagles’ prayers went unanswered, as the pass would fall short of the end zone, being batted away from a couple Sand Rock defenders.

After the play, the Wildcats bench exploded, celebrating a wild win to open their 2021 season.

“That was a wild one,” Sand Rock head coach Alan Heath said. “Hat’s off to Coach Pruitt and Pisgah. Good lord, they played their tails off. They seemed to have the right answer for everything we were doing. We made a whole lot of mistakes tonight. We turned over the football two or three times. Special teams made mistakes. We did not play fundamental football. We are blessed, lucky, something to get out of here with a win.”

Holcomb finished the game 10 of 25 for 205 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

“The effort is there, [we have] correctable mistakes that we have to correct, [we have to correct] the things we see on film, there will be plenty there. We did some good things, we did some bad things, our kid’s effort, we can build on that, so that’s something there,” Pisgah head coach Luke Pruitt said.

Ashley finished the game 14 of 22 for 168 yards and two touchdowns, going 4-for-4 with 34 yards and the decisive touchdown on Sand Rock’s last drive of the game.

McCrary led the Eagles with 147 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Haygood led the Wildcats with 147 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries.

“I love offense,” Heath said. “I was an offensive coordinator before I was a head football coach, but games like this are going to take years off my life. I’m going to have a heart attack or something because I can’t handle this. We need to start being able to play complete football. Every single aspect of the game which includes special teams, defense, offense, everything. Blocking, tackling, running the ball, protecting the football, catching passes, throwing passes, every bit of it we have to be able to do because, hoo boy, this is going to kill me.”

Sand Rock travels to Westbrook Christian next Friday. Pisgah is at Plainview.