Tigers snag pass, seal win
By Steve Winzenread
CONCORD - You can’t say the Mount Pleasant football team hasn’t endured challenges already this season.
In early August, the Tigers lost their returning starting quarterback to injury.
Then a season-opening 56-0 win over Hickory Ridge was forfeited.
And on Friday night at Concord’s Bailey Stadium, the Tigers had to stop a final Spiders’ drive.
Stop it they did, when Jacob Hunt intercepted a pass inside the Mount Pleasant 5-yard line with 6.4 seconds left in the game to preserve a 13-10 nonconference win.
“When you’ve got 30 seniors who have been around the block, it helps,” said Tigers head coach Mike Johns. “They did a good job, showed a lot of leadership tonight.”
One of those seniors is linebacker Aaron Edwards.
“This team has really come together,” he said. “We still have a strong team. We knew if we could take this game, it was going to give us momentum.”
“The boys had a great week of practice,” Johns added. “We all talked about (the forfeit) about 15 minutes and said, ‘Well, it’s over, let’s focus on the Spiders.’”
After spotting Concord a field goal, the Tigers built a 13-3 lead behind the power running of Haywood Forte, a 2-yard touchdown pass from Tye Hill to Jason Talbert and two field goals by Weston Brown.
But the Spiders, playing their first game of 2007, rallied behind the fourth quarterback they tried, senior Tony Moore.
Moore turned an errant snap in the shotgun into a 41-yard scoring run that made the score 13-10 in the third quarter.
Starting with 1:46 left in the game, he passed the Spiders from their 6 to the Tigers 9 with 21 seconds left.
After Moore spiked the ball to stop the clock, one final pass was picked off by Hunt.
Forte, a junior, rushed for 113 yards on 23 carries. His 32-yard run in the fourth quarter set up Brown’s punt that pinned Concord deep for the final drive.
“We knew Haywood was going to have to have a lot of carries tonight and he did a good job for us,” Johns said.
On Concord’s final drive, a 50-yard pass from Moore to Jimmy Drye, which was tipped by a Tigers defender, put the Spiders at the 28.
Moore ran for eight yards, then he threw to Drye again for 16 yards to the 9.
“Tony’s an athlete,” said Spiders head coach E.Z. Smith. “He makes some athletic plays.
“But his lack of experience probably hurt him a little bit. We’ll continue to keep them all in the mix, try to find the right combination (at quarterback), because Tony and Roger (Smith, tailback) are going to have to play some defense, too.”
After a 21-yard kickoff return by Talbert to the 41, the Tigers drove 59 yards on 16 plays in the second quarter to lead 7-3.
Moore’s interception early in the second quarter set up Brandon Barnhardt’s 27-yard field goal.
Fred Heintz’s fumble recovery late in the first half led to Brown’s 32-yard field goal.
Brown kicked a 30-yard field goal with 5:30 to play in the third quarter after consecutive passes by Hill of 19 yards to Tanner Childs and 37 yards to Talbert put the Tigers in scoring position.
“It’s a very big win for us against Concord on their homefield, which not many can do,” Edwards said.
Not only win, but make a clutch defensive stand to do so.
“To come back and win a nailbiter,” Johns said, “an absolute defensive slugfest.”