PEARL — Defensive backs never like to trail a play.
They also don’t like to see the number of opponent because that likely means they are chasing someone who is making a beeline for the end zone.
It didn’t matter to Kameron Spann that Andre Erby had what looked like a clear path to score six points. It also didn’t matter that Erby wasn’t the player Spann was responsible for at the start of the play. But with one more step to go to play for a North State title, Spann knew he had to do something.
“I was pretty nervous,” Spann said. “I was just thinking about my team the whole time and seeing if I could catch him and make a big play.”
Spann put his nerves aside and used his speed to catch up to Erby and rip the ball from his hand to force a fumble inside the 10-yard line on a play that could have helped New Hope tie the game with less than four minutes remaining. That play and a 15-yard interception return by Spann on the Trojans’ next drive were the final ones the Pearl High School football team needed in a 27-14 victory in the semifinals of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A North State playoffs at Ray Rogers Stadium.
Pearl (11-3) advances to the Class 5A North State title game to play Oxford, which defeated West Point, at 7 p.m. next week. The winner will advance to Starkville to play for a championship.
Trailing 21-14, New Hope (10-3) took over on its 30 with 4 minutes, 57 seconds remaining. One drive after gaining -8 yards on three plays, the Trojans used a 6-yard pass from quarterback Stone Sisson to Jeremy Newton to start the drive. Junior running back Brenton Spann (20 carries, 140 yards) gained 6 yards on the next play to set up the play that turned the game. Sisson had plenty of time to stand in the pocket and find Erby, who came open in the middle of the field. The sophomore appeared to have an open road to the end zone until Kameron Spann streaked into the picture.
Spann, a 5-foot-10, 160-pound junior, said he merely did what he has been coached to do in a situation when he is trailing a ball carrier: Chase and rip. Coming diagonally, Spann said he read Erby and used his hand to have a clean rip that removed the ball from Erby’s possession.
Pearl coach John Perry said Spann’s play epitomized the attitude all of his players in that they never give up on a play.
“We prefer that our players not be behind them, but if they are behind them, try to make something good out of it,” Perry said. “What a fantastic play. That is the ballgame in a nutshell. It was an awesome hustle play, and then he had the thought process to really rake it and get it out. That was the play of the game.”
New Hope coach Kris Pickle said his team had the play early in the game, but didn’t get a chance to execute it into late. On the play, he said the Trojans wanted to “high load” the safety, and both of the defenders went with receiver Bryson Ellis. As a result, Erby was open in the middle of the field with a lot of free space in front of him.
“I thought he was going to score,” Pickle said. “They caught him from behind and just punched it out. That would have changed the game.”
Perry said the effort Spann used to chase Erby down is the same way he gets after it every day in practice and in games. He said it doesn’t matter if Spann is covering his man or is helping a teammate.
“He is going to play to the whistle sounds, as hard as he can play,” Perry said. “That is just a prime example of a great hustle play that won a ballgame for us. If he goes in, it is a tie ballgame and you never know what is going to happen. They had the momentum really big that time.”
Despite the turnover, New Hope still had time to get back into scoring position. Its defense did its job by holding the Pirates on four plays to force a punt with less than three minutes remaining.
Unfortunately, the ball didn’t bounce New Hope’s way. Before the punt, New Hope’s coaches motioned for the two returners to move up inside the 50 to prevent a short kick from hitting the turf and going deeper into New Hope territory. The returners responded and moved up, but they didn’t move up enough, as Cagle’s punt bounced and appeared to short hop off Ellis’ shin and rolled up his leg.
Pickle said the fumble inside the 10-yard line and the punt that the Trojans couldn’t control were just cases of his players trying to make plays.
“We had him wide open, and he probably never saw the guy coming,” Pickle said. “Pearl made a play.”
The Pirates recovered at the 35, but again couldn’t move the football. The Trojans held the the Pirates to a 6-yard gain on third-and-7 and forced Cagle to punt again. This time, Cagle’s punt rolled all the way to the New Hope 8. Faced with 92 yards and 1:56 to go for the tying score, the Trojans didn’t get that chance, as Spann intercepted Sisson’s pass to the right side and wasn’t touched on his 15-yard return for the six points that sealed the deal.
“My coach always tells me never to jump the pass, so I didn’t jump it this time and I just read the quarterback’s hips,” Spann said. “When he turned, I went and I picked it off.”
Perry said the interception finally allowed the Pirates to exhale after being unable to put the Trojans away on numerous occasions.
“We were saying right before the pick that we really needed something big to happen because they were staying so close,” Perry said. “We felt like we were winning the special teams, and Hunter did a great job flipping the field a couple of times, and we knew we needed something good to happen. The interception kind of put it out of reach. It was just a really good football game. Both teams are really good.”
Pearl took control on a 22-yard touchdown run by Jordan Wright (25 carries, 140 yards) that capped a six-play drive that used only 1:43. The Pirates doubled the lead when Larry Stewart recovered a fumble by Brenton Spann off a shovel pass from Sisson and returned the football 40 yards for a 14-0 lead 2:41 into the game.
But New Hope didn’t waver. It marched 66 yards on nine plays and used a 16-yard run by Spann to cut the lead in half at the 5:09 mark of the first quarter.
New Hope had one scoring chance at the end of the first half end with an interception. It also moved to the Pearl 31 on the first drive of the second half, only to have the Pirates bring pressure against Sisson and force him into a 9-yard loss on a pass to Spann on fourth-and-8.
New Hope answered on its next drive, though, as it needed only six plays to set up Gavin Salter’s 1-yard run that tied the game with 7:03 left in the third quarter. A 49-yard run by Spann set the stage for Salter. He would have scored if not for Kameron Spann, who took him down from behind.
Perry said that play was just one of many Kameron Spann made on a night the Pirates earned a rematch against the Chargers. Oxford beat Pearl 39-21 in the quarterfinals of the 2013 Class 5A North State playoffs.
“They’re a really good team, but when we went in at halftime, like coach Perry said, they’re good, but we’re better,” Spann said. “We still have a chance to do it, so we took his word for it and we did it.”
Pickle praised the play of the defense, which he said played a “great game” and kept it in games all season. He said the offense “battled” but come up a few plays short in the end. Still, after a season in which he often talked about getting the players to believe they could win a region title and could compete for a state title, Pickle said he was proud of his team’s effort.
“We’re down 14-0 right off the bat and fought back and got the ball back and had a great drive to make it 14-7,” Pickle said. “The senior group is resilient. They’re not going to quit, and they hadn’t quit all year. We hadn’t been behind in a lot of games, but the games we have been behind in — except for the Oxford game — we have been right there at the end and had a chance to win at the end. The kids bought in, and that is why we’re 10-3 compared to the 4-7 football team they were last season.”
Brenton Spann said it was frustrating to have the turnovers play such a big role in ending the Trojans’ season. He said any team can’t make mistakes like that and beat a good team. Still, he was proud of the progress New Hope made.
“We knew we still had a chance and that we were still in the ballgame (after falling behind 14-0),” Spann said. “We really shot ourselves in the foot and made a lot of mistakes to put ourselves in that situation.
“It really is a life lesson. When you get behind, you can’t just stop. You never give up. You have to fight until the end.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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