By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

SPRING GARDEN – By his own admission, Cedar Bluff senior quarterback Kaden Pack has been a little laid back in the past.

But with each passing week this football season, he’s developing into the leader that the Tigers really need him to be.

It paid off big time on Friday night at rival Spring Garden.

In what proved to be a defensive battle the entire game, Pack made one of the game’s biggest offensive plays at the end. He dropped back to pass, but couldn’t find an open receiver, so he tucked the ball and ran 13 yards to the left side of the line and scored the game-tying touchdown with 33 seconds remaining. Senior kicker Carter Dillingham connected on the game-winning extra point in the Tigers’ 7-6 victory.

The victory ended the Tigers’ three-year skid against the Panthers.

“I’m always looking for that second route. That second route is usually open, but everything was covered there,” Pack said of the play. “My hole opened up and I took off running to the end zone. I knew I was going to score. I put the ball up in the air, I was so excited. It’s the happiest I’ve been. This is probably the best game I’ve ever played in my life.

First-year Cedar Bluff coach Garrett Crane said the play Pack scored on is a drill the Tigers work on every day.

“His eyes were down field,” Crane said. “For a drill that we do every day, he just made it seem like another day in the park. He’s stepping up big for us. His leadership out there is absolutely unbelievable. He pulled our guys through.”

For the majority of the game, it looked like Spring Garden (4-2) would be the team to pull through behind the running of Connor Bates and Chapel Pope. Bates led the Panthers with 119 yards on 16 carries. Pope added 105 yards on 18 totes with Spring Garden’s lone touchdown.

But as first-year Panther head coach Barrett Ragsdale said, Spring Garden couldn’t finish.

“Last week we did the same thing (in a 15-6 win at Winterboro),” Ragsdale said. “We had some long drives but just couldn’t put it in the end zone. We made some critical mistakes at critical points. Defensively we played good for almost four quarters, but that last two minutes, hat’s off to them. They made plays when it counted.”

It was also the second straight week Cedar Bluff was in a defensive battle. The Tigers fell short at Decatur Heritage last week 13-7. They had a chance to win that game late, but couldn’t punch the ball in the end zone at the end.

That made for a teachable lesson all week for Crane.

“This week we talked about having an opportunity to finish ball games, but to finish those ball games, you first have to be in them some,” Crane said. “You can try to simulate it at practice, but there’s nothing like game experience being in those situations there.”

Pack said this week was “the hardest week of practice we’ve had all year.”

“I told our guys all week we’re not losing this game,” he said. “I said the same thing in the fourth quarter. I had faith. I told them as long as you have faith and play hard the whole game, the outcome will be great.”

After battling each other to a scoreless tie in the first half, Spring Garden finally put the first points on the board after a defensive stand.

With the Tigers threatening inside the Panther 30-yard line, Pack was sacked on a fourth-down play for an 8-yard loss following pressure from Spring Garden’s Grey Simpson and John Welsh.

It took the Panthers just four plays to take the lead, resulting in Pope’s 5-yard touchdown run with 5:24 remaining in the third quarter. The drive was aided by Bates’ 38-yard rush on the second play.

The Panthers looked to extend their 6-0 lead on Hayes Garmon’s extra point, but Cedar Bluff defender Logan Hampton penetrated through the line and blocked the ball, which proved to be a pivotal play.

“What I saw was (number) 70 (Jacob Dempsey) move over, so I had a wide open gap,” Hampton said. “I saw him about to kick it, so I blocked it.”

“That (blocked extra point) was huge,” Ragsdale said. “I don’t know what happened on that. They came right up the middle. They gave great effort and had a great rush. As soon as they blocked it, in my mind I was thinking that was a big point of the game.”

Cedar Bluff’s defense came up big again by forcing the Panthers to punt with less than three minutes remaining in the game, setting the stage for Pack’s heroics.

Setting up at the Tiger 30, Pack began the drive with a 30-yard completion to Caleb Edmondson. A 12-yard run later in the drive by Alex Baty brought the ball down to the Panther 18. A 5-yard run by Hunter Jenkins inched the Tigers closer at the 13, prompting Crane to call a timeout with 41.4 seconds remaining.

Pack scored the game-tying touchdown on the ensuing play with 33 seconds left.

“Our team got a little bit down, but we never gave up,” Pack said. “I kept telling them every single play we aren’t losing this game. No matter what it takes, we are not losing this game. I said it over and over the entire fourth quarter. It paid off in the end.”

Spring Garden had one last chance on the kickoff. Pope fielded the kick and was brought down at the Panther 8. Noah Barber tossed a 14-yard completion to John Welsh to bring the ball up to the 22 with 20.9 seconds to go. Barber bobbled the snap on the next play and was dropped for a 7-yard loss.

With the clock running, Barber spiked the ball with 6 seconds. On the next play, Barber found Pope on a pass. Pope then lateraled to Welsh, who got out of bounds near the 30. A Tiger penalty for a late hit brought the ball up to the 45 with one tick left on clock. Barber’s desperation heave downfield fell incomplete, and the Tigers escaped with the win.

Pack completed 9-of-17 pass attempts for 90 yards. Edmondson caught three passes for 49 yards. He also had an interception on defense.

Jenkins led Cedar Bluff’s ground game with 52 yards on 16 carries. Baty ran for 30 on seven totes.

Both teams jump back into region play next week. Cedar Bluff hosts Valley Head while Spring Garden is at Talladega County Central.