After mounting a valiant second-half effort, the Gatewood Gators came just two points short of completing an unexpected comeback on Sept. 9, as the Raiders from Southland Academy held on to take a 35-33 win back home to Americus.
The teams headed to the locker room with the Gators behind 28-13 at the half. Head coach Jeff Ratliff knew he had to get his team’s attention, so he channeled some help from an old coaching friend.
“Barney Hester, I coached with him for 17 years, and every Thursday he had the same speech and I still do it now, too,” Ratliff said. “He’d say, ‘Men, no matter what happens tomorrow night, you keep playing. If you go up by 14 or down by 14, you keep playing. Football is a strange game and it’s a momentum game. You keep playing and you play hard, and you won’t be disappointed with the results.’ “So I just reminded them (of that speech) and told them, ‘Man, I’m disappointed that the things we prepared for we messed up,’ and I think we got their attention,” he continued. “They came out, played a great second half, busted their tails out there and almost got it done. Our defense played a great second half.”
The troubles started early for the Gators with a fumble ending their first possession in the opening quarter. That led to a 1-yard rushing score by Southland, followed by a 2-point conversion.
Another possession, another fumble lost by Gatewood, but the score remained 8-0 to the end of the quarter. That changed early in Q2, though, when running back Trey Sellers ran the ball in from the 6-yard line to reach 14-0 after Southland missed its second 2-point attempt.
Finally, with 7:03 left in the half, quarterback Ames Johnson got the Gators on the board. After twisting his way out of what looked like a certain sack, Johnson went on a 67 -yard sprint down the left sideline to score before kicker Jayden Daniel added the extra point.
The lift didn’t last long for the home team, however, with Raiders running back Cedric Smith replicating Johnson’s escape, looking trapped as he ran to his right at the 12-yard line, then reversing direction and running down the middle for a diving touchdown followed by the extra point by Raiders’ kicker Bennett Minor (88) to make it 21-7.
Gatewood came close to scoring again, with Evan Bennett barely missing a pair of consecutive throws to the Raiders’ goal line, but with less than a minute left, Gatewood turned the ball over and on the next play near their own 30-yard line, Smith again made a long, speedy run to seal the deal for his second rushing TD on the night with 40 seconds left in the half.
Remarkably, the scoring wasn’t over, though. After dropping the kickoff near his own 10-yard line, 2021 All-State running back Justin Jameson made two impressive runs for Gatewood to reach the Southland 27-yard line, where Bennett took over and ran the touchdown in for a 28-13 halftime score after Daniel’s extra-point kick was blocked.
As the second half began, it initially looked like more of the same was coming as Southland scored within two minutes with Perry Usher (44) getting a short catch-and-carry TD followed by another extra point from Minor.
However, the Gators struck next after starting from their own 33, where Jameson took a handoff and ran the ball into Raiders’ territory. At the 46-yard line, Bennett took over and ran the distance, leading to a 35-20 score with 5:03 left in the quarter.
The Gators forced Southland to punt after its next possession, with Jackson Hewatt (3) making the catch at his own 15-yard line and running it out to the 37, where Southland was penalized for both face mask and sideline violations, moving the ball to their 48-yard line.
The Gators eventually made it to the Raiders’ 11, where Southland again received a face mask penalty, moving the ball to the 6-yard line just as the quarter ended.
When the game resumed, Gatewood’s Jameson scored again, just 7 seconds into the final quarter to make it a 35-27 contest.
The partisan Gators’ crowd sensed the possibility of a win that seemed so unlikely an hour or so earlier.
Moments after the Gators recovered a Southland fumble near the halfway point of the field, Johnson threw to tight end Lawson Wooten at the 22-yard line, and again to the goal line where John Wallace Thompson dove across for the touchdown with 4:09 on the clock and a 35-33 score.
The Gators again went for the two-point conversion, but this time the Raiders held strong, as did the final score.
“When you play Gatewood, you know that they’re going to play hard until the final horn,” Southland head coach Rod Murray said. “The emotions were up and down. I mean, it was probably a fun game to watch, but for us coaching on both sidelines, it was a roller coaster. We’re thankful to come out of here with a win.”
On the opposite side of the field, Ratliff said despite the loss he remained satisfied with his team’s performance.
“I’ve never been one to say you learn a lot from losing; to be honest I’d rather learn a lot from winning,” he said. “But we learned a lot tonight. We definitely learned something about ourselves. I want them to know, I’m proud of these guys.”