In an offensive game with 79 combined points, it was two plays — one on defense and another on special teams — that won the game for Union.
The Yellowjackets blocked a punt and intercepted a pass to beat Newton County 41-38 on Friday night to spoil the Cougars’ homecoming.
“It was a big win for us the way it happened,” Union head coach Brad Breland said. “Hats off to Newton County. They fought all night, but I’m proud of our guys. Man, it’s hot, and we just fought through it. Our guys fought, and their guys fought, and we were just lucky to make the last play.”
In the end, though, it came down to the final three minutes of the game and defensive play before Union delivered the crushing blow on a blocked punt by Jaylon Buckley and an interception by Jaheim Gill to seal the Cougars fate.
“We didn’t play very well on defense tonight, but hats off to them (Newton County) again,” Breland said. “They did a great job of evening us up and kind of taking us out of our slant game. They did what they had to do and executed, and we just made the last play.”
The Union defensive stand came at the 2:27 mark of the fourth quarter when the Yellowjackets, unable to convert on fourth down, gave the Cougars the ball at the Union 40. After three Cougar running plays that resulted in -2 yards, the Cougars were forced to punt with 1:43 remaining on the clock. Cougar quarterback and punter Hayden West had his punt blocked by Buckley.
Buckley’s play gave great field position at midfield to Union quarterback Colby Ferguson. The junior then took to the air and completed a pass to Markus Jones for a 31-yard touchdown play with 19 seconds remaining. The PAT was good, but County had less than 30 seconds to make one last-ditch effort. But Gill’s interception gave the Jackets the win.
“We blocked pretty well, and our quarterback (Ferguson) did really well. Also, Jaylon Buckley did a great job of blocking at running back. Both guys did great for us on offense tonight.”
Under Ferguson’s leadership, Union had 494 yards in total offense to Newton County’s 362. Ferguson was 8-of-12 passing with three touchdowns and one interception. West went 6-of-13 passing with one touchdown and two interceptions. On the ground, Union had 315 yards and Newton County had 207. Ferguson led the Yellowjackets’ ground game with 164 yards on 33 carries followed by Buckley with 99 yards on 11 carries. Marcus Wash led County with 128 yards on 20 carries.
“We’ve won two in a row now. This is big for us. Newton County is a close rival, and we’ve got a lot of good friends over there. You know you always like to beat your good friends, and luckily we made that play.”
Both teams got off to a fast start with Newton County scoring on their first drive of the game when West hit Wash on a swing pass that Wash turned the corner on and gained 66 yards. Two plays later Wash was in the end zone on one yard run, giving the Cougars a 6-0 lead with 8:48 remaining in the first quarter.
Two minutes later the Yellowjackets took the lead 7-6 on a 35 yard pass play from Ferguson to Buckley and Henry Thornton’s PAT kick.
The Cougars answered when West found Lamar Morgan for a 38-yard touchdown pass. Cole Shimfessel’s kick was good and the Cougars were back in the lead, 13-7, with nine minutes left in the half.
The Cougars’ Makindal Evans picked off Ferguson and scored from 38 yards out on the ensuing Union drive to put the Cougars up 20-7 with 7:54 left in the half.
Ferguson and crew answered with two quick scores before halftime. The first was on a 34-yard run by Kenyon Clay and the second was an eight-yard Ferguson run. Both PAT kicks were good and the Yellowjackets went into halftime with a 21-20 lead.
In the third quarter both teams got a touchdown each with West scoring on an 8-yard run to regain the Cougar lead 26-21. The Yellowjackets answered with an eight yards sustained drive that Ferguson capped off with a 1-yard touchdown run with 5:15 left in the quarter. The kicked failed, but Union led 27-26.
Both teams opened the fourth quarter by taking advantage of defensive miscues. The Cougars took back the lead early in the fourth quarter on a Wash 11-yard run. The 32-27 Cougar lead was answered by the Jackets with what could have been a back breaking 73-yard pass play from Ferguson to Kenyon Clay to put the Yellowjackets back in the lead 34-32 with 10 minutes left in the game.
West kept the Cougar crowd in the game with another successful drive that ended on his 1-yard run into the end zone. With 6:23 left in the game the Cougars had again taken the lead 38-34.
