The No. 5-ranked Trinity Valley Community College Cardinals advanced to the Southwest Junior College Football Conference title game with a 48-40 victory over Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Saturday at Bruce Field.
"That was a really fun game tonight," TVCC coach Brad Smiley said. "I am proud of the guys, and I told them that we learned our lesson from week three. What we didn't do then we did tonight where we didn't play all four quarters, we got outplayed in the fourth quarter and we had lacked energy and were not together."
The Cardinals (9-1) face Kilgore (6-3) in the SWJCFC regional title game at 3 p.m. Saturday. Kilgore was a 58-51 winner against Tyler in Saturday's other semifinal.
The Golden Norsemen led off the scoring as Dalton Witherspoon nailed a 43-yard field goal with 13:07 in the first quarter for the early 3-0 lead.
TVCC drove down the field and took its first lead of the game with 4:12 remaining in the first as Adam Berryman scored on a one-yard run. Caden Novikoff booted the PAT good for the 7-3 lead.
NEO then marched down the field as Nick Johns gave NEO the lead again at 9-7 with an 18-yard pass to Antwan Woods with 57 seconds remaining. NEO went for two on the swinging gate play, but the pass was incomplete.
TVCC then capitalized on an eight play, 81 yard drive that was capped off with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Michael Curtis to Jalen Guyton with 13:27 remaining in the first half.
The Cardinals added to its lead as Michael Sam blasted his way for a 78-yard punt return touchdown with 12:22 remaining to put the Cardinals up 20-9.
NEO then cut the halftime deficit to 20-16 as they marched down the field on a 16-play, 91-yard drive. The drive ended with a five-yard pass from Johns to Brandon Prather with 3:05 remaining. Witherspoon booted the PAT good.
"We felt like we were getting outplayed on the line in the first half," Smiley said. "We felt like the defense was playing great and in the kicking game, we gave up some big plays."
In the second half, the Cardinals led off the scoring as Curtis found Cedric Battle on a six-yard reception with 11:59 remaining. The PAT gave the Cardinals a 27-16 lead.
NEO went on another time consuming drive as they put together a 10-play, 98-yard drive capped off with a 12-yard pass from Cordale Grundy to Kobe Bryer. Witherspoon nailed the PAT for the 27-23 deficit with 3:11 remaining.
With just six seconds off of the clock in the fourth quarter, NEO regained the lead as Grundy found Prather on an eight-yard pass for the 30-27 lead.
The Cardinals had a 15-yard run by Khalil Banks to retake the lead with 13:54 remaining in regulation. The PAT by Novikoff was good for the 34-30 advantage.
The Cardinals went up by 11 with 11:18 remaining as Curtis found Dominique Thomas on a three-yard reception. The PAT gave TVCC a 41-30 lead.
Prather and Grundy connected once again for NEO, this time on a six-yard pass with 10:56 remaining. The PAT by Witherspoon cut the deficit to 41-37.
Berryman then capped off an 11-play, 82-yard drive with a tough six-yard run with 5:59 remaining. Novikoff booted the PAT good for the 48-37 lead.
The final score of the game came with 1:20 remaining as Witherspoon nailed a 22-yard field goal for the Golden Norsemen to end the game at 48-40 in favor of the Cardinals.
(Story courtesy of Athens Daily Review)
