In a season of disappointments, Friday night was the toughest so far for the Newton County Academy Generals.
The Generals overcame a 10-0 deficit and led 13-10 late before Tri-County scored in the last seconds to take a thrilling 17-13 win on Friday night.
With the loss, NCA falls to 0-6 on the season and will host Tuscaloosa Academy on Friday night.
“I was really proud of them,” NCA coach Rob Roberts said. “They left it all on the field. If they had played like that all season, we would probably have four or five wins. I figured after we lost to Leake like we did, they would be down this week. But they played really hard. We should have beat them. Even their coach came and told our kids that they whipped them all over the field and should have won.”
Things didn’t start out so well for the Generals as Tri-County found a receiver running free and hit him for a 78-yard touchdown pass. The PAT was good and Tri-County led 7-0 early.
The offenses stalled for the remainder of the half as the two teams combined for six punts and each team turned the ball over on downs as Tri-County led 7-0 at the half.
Tri-County drove the ball inside the NCA 20 on its first drive of the second half but settled for a 20-yard field goal to go up 10-0.
The Generals then responded with a six-play, 60-yard drive as Lincoln Jordan scored on a 6-yard run. Ethan McDill’s PAT was good and Tri-County led 10-7 midway through the third period.
It wasn’t until midway through the fourth period when Jordan found the end zone again, capping off a seven-play, 51-yard drive with a 9-yard touchdown run. McDill’s PAT failed and NCA led 13-0.
NCA recovered a Tri-County fumble but gave it right back with a three-and-out on offense.
That’s when Tri-County put together it’s game winning drive. The Rebels needed 15 plays to find the end zone as they converted two fourth downs and a third-and-25 on the drive. It appeared as if the Generals had won the game when they intercepted a pass near the goal on a third down. But the Generals were flagged for pass interference on the play, giving the Rebels ball at the NCA 9. The Rebels then scored on a 9-yard pass in the last seconds to take the win.
“I’m not going to say anything about the officiating but we had 12 holding calls in the game and that just killed us,” Roberts said. “We were moving the football on them and kept on getting holding call. And then we had the pass interference call on the interception that was huge. And they got a fifth down on the drive. And I didn’t think they signaled a touchdown at the end. I thought they were lining up for a field goal and we were going to overtime and they got together and called it a touchdown.”
The Generals had 284 yards of total offense as they ran for 253 yards and threw for 31 yards. Jordan had 187 yards rushing on 28 carries while Eli Finnegan had 57 yards on 15 carries.
