Canes Shock Greene Co. For Win

With 7:06 left in the third quarter of the Monticello vs. Greene County football game, these were the facts:

After a pick-off of a McMichael pass, a crowd-hushing injury to running back A. J. Thomas on that tackle at the Monticello 24, and a five play Tiger drive, the Canes were on the low end of a 24-6 score heading for what was a sure eighth defeat.

What no one could know was that this would also be the low point of the Monticello season and what would happen next would be a turnaround to place in the history books of ‘Canes football combined with the possibility of the beginning of great things in the Coach Roberts era.

On a cold Friday, the Canes kicked off to begin the game against the Tigers. Long Greene County runs and Monticello penalties resulted in a quick 7-0 score in favor of the home team.

As all season in the first quarter, the Canes were able to hang tough with runs by Chris Thomas, SaDarius Rooks, and A.J. Thomas plus a long McMichael to Campbell pass to set up the first Monticello score with C. Thomas crashing in from the one.

The XP was no good making the score, 7-6. The Canes defense stopped the Tigers on the next series of downs and things began looking up for the visitors as the 1st quarter ended with a Rooks 21 yard scamper to put the Canes on their own 40.

The second quarter began a period of unraveling for the Canes. An interception on the second play of the period resulted in the Tigers getting a first and goal on the Monticello five yard line. Two plays later the Canes were behind by 14-6.
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Monticello had chances to close the gap, but a long run by the Tiger quarterback and a questionable pass reception on the next play put the Tigers in range of their field goal kicker who split the uprights with 2 seconds left on the clock to give the Tigers a 17-6 half-time lead.

The downward spiral continued after the half with the interception setting up the 24-6 third quarter score with 7:06 left in the quarter. It would have been easy for the ‘Canes and their large traveling fan corps to give up, but there is no “quit” in this young team.

Starting a drive on their own 47, runs by Rooks and C. Thomas and a 18 yard McMichael to Edwards pass set up a Rooks scoring run. The two point conversion pass to Rooks was good and the Canes were trailing 24-14 as the third quarter ended.

Monticello’s defense stopped the now surprised Tigers and the subsequent punt was returned to the Canes 45 aided by a 15 yard late hit penalty.

A strong run by Rooks and an Edwards catch brought the ball all the way down to the Tiger 21. That was close enough for a 21 yard TD run by rooks and an Enrique XP followed to bring the score to 24-21. Quickly a Blankenship fumble recovery gave the ball back to the now-fired-up ‘Canes on the Greene 38. A change of direction run by Rooks and a McMichael to Edwards pass put Monticello ahead at 28-24 and just about silenced the Senior Night crowd in the home stands with 4:18 left in the ball game.

However, Greene County didn’t have a 5-2 record and a win against region leading Putnam County for no reason. The Tigers scored quickly on a long run and then a longer pass to retake the lead at 30-28 with 1:58 left on the clock. An excessive celebration penalty after their score and a Rooks return put the ball on the Greene 48. McMichael quickly hit Rooks with a 12 yard completion followed by Rooks going through the line for 10 more and the ball on the 25.
The Tigers sacked McMichael on the next play and with 41 seconds left the Canes were faced with a 3rd and 7. A run fake to Rooks gave McMichael the time to set up for a beautiful pass that Adrian Campbell snagged on the Tiger one yard line with 26 seconds left in the game.

All season long the Hurricanes have given the ball to Rooks when they needed the tough yard and Rooks was up to the challenge as he crashed into the end zone. Enrique put the icing on the victory cake with his XP and the Canes won their first game of the season, shocking Greene County 35-30.

“I’m proud of the way our boys fought back and never gave up,” reported Monticello Head Coach Eddie Roberts. “It was like watching a different team playing in the last quarter. We played to win instead of playing like we were waiting for something bad to happen. Even after the Greene County team scored near the end to take the lead, our guys never went negative and thought they couldn’t come back.

Instead, they went positive and encouraged each other to give it their all. I know on a cold night, everyone got warmed up in the last quarter, especially our fans who have followed us all year.
“SeDarius Rooks turned his game up a notch and that really spurred on his team. Our offensive line played their best of the season and our “speed racer” play action plays kept the Tigers off balance all night.

Brady McMichael didn’t let two interceptions get to him and he was a team leader on and off the field. Our receivers, Billy Edwards (who we call “Backing Up Billy’ because of the way he gets to the ball) and Adrian Campbell made some huge catches. Adrian ran a great route to set up our win by bringing the ball down with him on the one yard line. Freshman Kyle Camp played linebacker all game and came in as full-back after A. J. was injured. This was Kyle’s first full varsity game.

Looking ahead to next Friday, we still have some injuries we hope to get back on the field. Travis Hulsey and A.J. Thomas are going to practice this week and we will see how they are.

Xavier “Dee” Chapman and Chris Thomas should be back at full speed. Crawford County is a lot like us and they are getting better each week. Crawford led Morgan County 14-0 until turnovers cost them the game last week.

A speedy, athletic team, Crawford will be looking to get their win against us. We will be working with our boys in getting them to learn how to win and handle success just like we worked with them on how to handle failure.

I told the team last week we are going to treat this as a 3 game season and that if you don’t give up, good things will happen.
We are excited about playing before a huge Homecoming Crowd with a lot of excitement and congratulations to our Grand Champion band.”
(Correction from last week’s game article: #1 Adrian Campbell made the 65 yard reception from QB McMichael against Putman. We regret the mistake).

STATS vs. Greene County

Passing
B. McMichael 8-16, 148 yds 1 TD, 2 Int
Receiving
A. Campbell 242 yds, 1 TD ,
B.Edwards 4 91 yds
Rooks 215yds
Rushing

Rooks 16 151 yds, 3 TD
C. Thomas 15 53 yds 1 TD
A.J. Thomas 11 69yds
K. Camp 30
McMichael 1-3yds
Tackles
K. Camp 7
B. Edwards 3
E. Ammons 3
XP’s
Enrique 3-4
Penalties
Monticello 11-65 Greene 7-50