Demons stay tied for 3rd after shootout victory

It was a lot like trying to bathe a cat.

Just when you think you’ve got it about to go in the water, somehow it manages to claw its way out of your grasp.

Such was the case between Warner Robins and Lakeside-Evans Friday at McConnell-Talbert Stadium. The Demons, eventual 51-49 winners, several times appeared to have the Panthers (See. Just a big cat.) en route to the brink when “growl,” “hiss,” “yowl” … scratch!

Case in point. Late in the second quarter – about four minutes from the half – Warner Robins led 28-14. It had momentum. It had the ball and in fact was driving for what might have just been what the bather ordered.

See: “somehow it manages to claw its way out,” as just over a minute before the horn sounded, Andrew Studstill intercepted a pass and took it 60 yards the other way for the score. “Growl … hiss …”

The Panthers, with new life and more help via a locker room pep talk, came out and tied it at 28 to start the third. They did so by stealing the ball via an onside kick. (Warner Robins had even won the coin toss but deferred to the second half just so it could get the ball first.) That in turn resulted in a seven-play, 48-yard drive that took less than three minutes to complete. Joshua Jones finished it off from nine yards out.

The Demons, recovering the next onside kick, took the lead back with a seven-play drive of its own. Ivan Corbin finished theirs off from eight yards out.

O.K., so maybe a bath after all? Nope. Not when you’ve got a guy like Stephen Houzah who can answer with cat-like grace and go 92 yards on the ensuing kickoff. He did the same thing right after Warner Robins had taken a 45-42 lead on Tyrome Tharpe’s 60-yard interception for a score. This time it was for 79 yards. And yes, the Demons did try to kick it away from him.

In between his first and second return, there was a 35-yard field goal by Conner Shaw for Warner Robins (38-35, Demons), a 10-play, 81-yard drive by the Panthers (42-38, Lakeside-Evans – the score coming just before the third quarter came to an end) a punt by Warner Robins and the interception by Tharpe. There were, by the way, only three punts the whole game. The Panthers punted once in the first half and the Demons twice in the second.

The winning score – desperation to keep from taking a bath themselves – came right after Houzah’s second return. Warner Robins started on its own 32 and took six plays – Corbin took care of 64 yards on just one run – to get into the end zone. Terry Harris finished it off from the 8. Shaw’s point after was blocked, which was no doubt a big concern with the way things had gone so far.

That turned out not to matter as the Demons’ defense stepped in and up. On a fourth-and-eight from the 50 – after the Panthers had moved from their own 32 to get to that point – Leon Perry knocked down a pass that would have given the visitors a first down.

After a three-and-out by Warner Robins, Lakeside-Evans took the ball on the 23. It ran six plays before being confronted with a fourth-and-10. On the seventh, quarterback Nick Patterson dropped back only to see a host of Demons headed his way. He flipped the ball to a lineman who was promptly tackled for no gain.

Warner Robins ran out the 1:38 that was left.

The game started with Lakeside-Evans looking unstoppable while going 75 yards on 10 plays. B.J. Raymond accounted for the Panthers’ score from the 5. The Demons, in setting the stage for what was to come, answered immediately. The only difference was it took them three plays to go 73 yards. Jacquan Burns ran it in from the 10.

Lakeside-Evans drove to Warner Robins’ 27 on its next drive, but then turned it over with a failed fourth-and-two.

The Demons again ran 10 plays and scored. This time they started at their own 29 and it was Burns again getting it in, this time from the 2. Corbin’s 22-yard run – capping of an eight-play drive that went 54 yards – accounted for touchdown number three. (The game was early into the second quarter by then.)

A 30-yard pass from Patterson to Luke Harmon made it 21-14 (with the PAT). Warner Robins’ Reggie Gordon bobbled the ensuing kickoff, recovered and then went 80 yards to make it 28-14 (again, with the PAT). That set the stage for the bath already alluded to.

The win was extremely huge in a tight Region 2-AAAAA battle. Both teams went in tied for third with Jones County (the Demons still have a contest with the Greyhounds, who were also winners Friday). Warner Robins is now 5-2 in the region, 5-3 overall, and only tied with Jones. Lakeside-Evans fell to 4-4, 4-3.

The first place tie is between Houston County and Northside. The Bears defeated Greenbrier on the road Friday 42-13 and the Eagles trounced Grovetown Saturday at McConnell-Talbert 49-14.

The Halloween night schedule has Houston hosting Evans in Warner Robins, Northside facing Cross Creek in Augusta and the Demons going in that same direction to play Grovetown.

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