By Dalton Middleton
Special to The Dispatch
Down by two possessions on homecoming at C. L. Mitchell Field, Tyler Anderson stepped in at quarterback late in the third quarter and led the Heritage Academy Patriots to a 30-26 comeback win over the West Lowndes Panthers.
Zach Oswalt, backup quarterback, started in place of Anderson so Heritage Academy could get Anderson some rest for his injured hamstring. After committing two turnovers and leading two touchdown drives, the Patriots brought Anderson in and he delivered the final blows to win the game.
Head coach Sean Harrison was pleased with the way Oswalt played, but he knew when it was time to bring his starter in to give the team the energy to finish the game.
“Zach stepped in on short notice,” Harrison said. “We weren’t sure if Tyler was going to be able to go or not and Zach did a great job. He did nothing wrong at all. We just felt like we needed a spark so we put Tyler in the game. We know what we are going to get out of Tyler. Tyler was just being Tyler.”
Playing in a close game, the Patriots did what they do best. They fought. After two weeks of close games, Anderson said his team was right where they wanted to be and they know they can finish when they need to.
“When we went down two possessions, we knew what to do,” Anderson said. “We just had to get momentum, and once we got momentum, we were rolling. I have never seen a group of guys get together like we do. I have never seen anybody keep fighting like we do. We worked hard all summer and got good condition, and that was the best thing we could do.”
West Lowndes coach Anthony King had praise for the Patriots and said they fought hard to come back when they needed to to win.
“We stopped the quarterback early on, but they just beat us up front,” King said. “We have to give them all the credit because they fought hard. They were down two touchdowns a couple of times and they could have folded, but they just kept fighting.”
Still undefeated at 2-0 in region play, West Lowndes looks forward to taking the advantages from this game back into their district and trying to finish No. 1. King said they will take the week to get Casey Smith back healthy and work on playing with a lead.
“We are going to have to try and improve some things and get ready for Smithville next week and win district,” King said. “Casey Smith playing quarterback has helped our team a lot to improve since the beginning of the season. We just have to continue working hard and get back into the win column last year. Next year, we will be playing another physical team again and we will be playing at home. We will work on improving our defense we have a lead and coming up with stops and getting pressure on the quarterback.”
Brandon Jones, a senior wide receiver and cornerback for Heritage Academy, decided to have his breakout performance on homecoming night, catching a touchdown pass and an interception in the game.
“It is just one of those games,” Jones said. “It is probably one of my better games. I’m a first year starter on defense and it was just a good game for me. Our defense stopped the run great. We let a few long passes, but we just had to get our heads turned around. Defensively, we did really good tonight.”
Coach Harrison was ecstatic about the way Jones played. He said that Jones is one of the better players on the field and he needs to stay on that level of performance all season if he can.
“I don’t know what got into him,” Harrison said. “Whatever got into him needs to stay there. He played physical, ran great routes and caught a great touchdown pass. Brandon is somebody we should have been going to offensively more this year. It just has not worked out, but it was good that when we did go to him that he made a great play.”
West Lowndes started the game off hot, scoring two touchdowns quick in the first quarter to take a 12-0 lead, but Dontae Gray scored with just a few seconds left in the first quarter to cut the lead to 12-7. After that, the teams flipped leads in the second quarter before West Lowndes took at 18-15 lead into halftime.
The third quarter was a defensive battle, with neither team scoring. Early in the fourth quarter, the Panthers scored again to go up 26-15 with 11 minutes and 32 seconds left in the game. Anderson then led his team on two touchdown drives, throwing an 18-yard touchdown to Jones and a 27-yard touchdown to Dalton Alexander.
West Lowndes got the ball with just under two minutes left, but could not complete a pass and turned the ball over on downs to give Heritage Academy the 30-26 win.
Harrison could not be happier with the way his team performed in the second half, but he knows that the team will have to do better in the beginning to keep winning later in the season.
“We have shown that we can finish the last couple of weeks, but we really have to do better starting,” Harrison said. “This game is another confidence booster. It shows us that we are mature enough to dig ourselves out of big holes and I think we do a good job of moving on from bad plays.”
Sitting at 6-1, the Heritage Academy Patriots are in the midst of a very successful season, but they still have very important games ahead of them. Coach Harrison said he cannot stress it enough to the players that this season is far from over yet.
“We have our three biggest games of the season in the next three weeks,” Harrison said. “We still have not locked up our district or locked in a playoff spot in any way, shape or form. I told them after the game, these next three weeks are most important three weeks of your football career. They do a good job of buying in and they will come to work every day but we have to have it the next three weeks and that will really tell the tale of what our season is about.”
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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