Patriots hang on to defeat Minor
HOMEWOOD – Fourth-down play calls can be confusing for an offense, often leading to turnovers on downs.
Homewood faced one of those situations against Minor on Friday night, but the Patriots flipped the status quo.
“I didn’t know the call at first, so I had to ask the quarterback for the call,” said Homewood wide receiver Marcus McGhee. “He told me what to run, and I just executed the play like my coaches teach me in practice. It was history after that.”
History, as McGhee refers to it, was a 27-yard diving touchdown on fourth-and-4 to give Homewood a 31-21 lead over a Minor team that wouldn’t go away at Waldrop Stadium. The Patriots held on to win, 31-28 in the Class 6A, Region 5 contest.
“It’s one of them,” McGhee said when asked if it was the best reception of his career. “I’ll remember it. It’s up there.”
Homewood quarterback Larkin Williams said the original call had trips to the left with some scissor routes. Williams saw the left side was jumbled with defenders, with McGhee split out to the right man-to-man. McGhee asked what the play was, and Williams told him to run a post route down the right sideline.
“I stepped up, and I just see Marcus with this dude on his coattail, and I was just like, ‘Heck yes,’” Williams said. “I was scared because he was so wide open, I didn’t want to underthrow him. I almost overthrew him. He made a heck of a catch. My heart stopped for about two seconds.”
McGhee said he felt as if he leaped from close to the 10-yard line – he did laugh when saying that – for the game-changing touchdown.
“I just wanted to get it,” he said.
Minor answered on a fourth-down play of its own with 2:42 remaining, when quarterback Brenton White hit Jamari Jemison for a 63-yard touchdown on fourth-and-8. Homewood (5-1, 3-0 in region) went three-and-out, but the defense held on to preserve the win.
“That was a hard-fought win,” said Homewood head coach Ben Berguson. “They did a good job tonight. They mixed things up a lot. They blitzed us a lot tonight. We just couldn’t catch a break early. It seemed like everything was going against us. In a game like this, needing someone to make a big play, and Marcus McGhee came up with a huge catch. That’s what you’ve got to have. You’ve got to have somebody make a play.”
The first quarter included several big plays. Homewood running back KeOnte Davis’ first carry went for 19 yards, and on the next play, he bolted for an untouched 23-yard score to give the Patriots an early 7-0 lead.
Minor answered on the ensuing drive when White found Christopher Charleston for a 24-yard score. The point-after attempt failed. Minor took a 13-7 lead late in the first quarter when White’s pass bounced off a Homewood defender and into the arms of Jemison, who scampered 82 yards for the score.
Williams lobbed a pass over the defense to Wilson McCraw for a 27-yard touchdown late in the second quarter to put the Patriots up 14-13. A Dewayne Smith interception set up a 25-yard field goal by Lane Gilchrist to put Homewood up 17-13 at halftime.
Davis added his second rushing touchdown in the third quarter, a 9-yard run that gave Homewood a 24-13 lead. White then connected with Jemison again, this time for a 34-yard strike to cut the deficit to 24-19. Jeremiah Fuller ran the ball in for the two-point conversion.
The next score was what Berguson deemed the play of the game, the fourth-down touchdown from Williams to McGhee.
“We knew it would be a tough game tonight,” Berguson said. “We’ve watched them get better all year. They’re always dangerous. They’ve always got athletes.”
Despite a few big plays, the Homewood defense locked in. After the 82-yard touchdown for Minor (2-5, 2-2) in the first quarter, the Homewood defense allowed just 37 total yards the rest of the half and notched an interception. A large part of that defense was Traveon Allen, who wowed the crowd with several big hits.
“It’s all my teammates,” Allen said. “They give me all the energy out on the field. I’m proud of my teammates.”
Williams finished 13-of-26 for 141 yards and two touchdowns. Davis rushed 21 times for 78 yards and two scores. For Minor, White completed 17-of-30 passes for 289 yards and four touchdowns to one interception. Jemison caught five passes for 223 yards and three scores.
Homewood continues region play next week when it hosts Chelsea. Minor has a bye week next Friday.
“Chelsea’s a good team. They’re a region opponent,” Williams said. “I think the thing we’ve got to focus on is not getting too cocky. I think we got a little big head after that first touchdown and that allowed Minor to stay in the game. We’ve just got to keep playing week to week. We can’t look ahead, can’t look toward playoff spots or any of that. We have to finish out this region and we’ve got some pretty tough opponents coming our way, so I think Chelsea will be a good test.”
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