Down by 17 with under two minutes left in the third quarter, Perry Hall football rallied with 20 straight points and secured a 27-24 victory over host Franklin on Friday night.
The go-ahead score came on a 17-yard quick screen from quarterback Terrell Hearn to wideout Vernon Allen with 1:06 remaining in the game.
“That was incredible. Just to be down like that and keep fighting, that’s what we really want to see, that’s what we stressed, find ways to win,” Perry Hall coach Ryan Pittillo said. “I mean, that’s a good football team and it’s easy to hang your head when we got down like that, but we really came together, we really stepped up and again our big guys made a play.”
Franklin (2-1) made big plays all night, and when Elijah Mathis returned an interception 92 yards for a touchdown to give the Indians a 24-7 lead with 7:13 left in the third quarter, it looked like it would be enough to put the game away.
Pittillo inserted young quarterback Jack Sabol for the next drive and he connected with Allen on a 51-yard deep slant on his second pass that moved the ball to the Franklin 31.
After the Gators (3-0) turned the ball over on downs four plays later, the Indians went three-and-out and Sabol got another chance.
On the third play of the ensuing drive, he hit Corey Costner on a quick screen and he scampered 43 yards for a touchdown with 1:16 left in the third quarter. Mario Gonzalex kicked the extra point to make it 24-14.
“We tried to just get some kind of spark a little bit,” Pittillo said about the quarterback switch. “Jack came in and that’s tough to do as a quarterback, tight game, down, a little adversity and just stepped in kind of cold. He’s a sophomore, and to step in and play like that is unbelievable.”
Costner’s late heroics were just beginning with the 43-yard TD.
“Coaches told me to make a play so that’s really what I did. We needed big players to make big plays, and that’s what I did,” Costner said.
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Franklin’s next possession ended with a punt after six plays and the Gators took over at their own 14. A completion from Sabol to Allen got 9 yards, but after three straight incompletions it was fourth-and-10 from the Gators’ 26.
Sabol was relieved by Hearn and he fired a deep slant to Costner, who juked a couple of tacklers and raced 74 yards for a score with 6:02 left in the game.
“I had a seam and me and my QB gave each other a look and I knew what was going on, deep ball, I knew it was coming, I just had to make a play,” Costner said. “You got to make plays in the open field, that’s what I do.”
“Corey just always finds a way. Corey is one of those guys, if you give him enough opportunities, he’s going to make something happen,” Pittillo said. “He’s just one of those guys you can just always rely on. He’s a leader and a playmaker, he’s unbelievable.”
A blocked extra point attempt left the Gators needing a touchdown to win, and that’s exactly what they got.
A sack by Artavien Tubman on second down led to a three-and-out, and the Gators took over at their own 29 with 4:11 remaining. Hearn threw passes to Jalil Frazier for 10 yards and to CJ Crump for 30, setting up the game-winning heroics.
Three plays later, Allen caught the screen pass 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage and raced untouched into the end zone.
“They fought hard, they wanted it more than we wanted it at the end of the day,” Franklin coach Anthony Burgos said. “In big games like this, big players make big plays and No. 5 [Costner] definitely showed why he’s a big-time player.”
Perry Hall dominated play from the line of scrimmage, totaling 421 yards compared with the Indians’ 120.
The Gators had 270 passing yards and Sabol and Hearn combined for 234 of them in the second half. Perry Hall’s rushing attack was led by Lamont Smith (11 carries for 84 yards), and it ran 65 plays from scrimmage to Franklin’s 37.
But the Indians built the lead because of big plays and special teams.
Anthony Gibson returned a punt 35 yards for a score the first time the Indians got the ball, and after a 10-yard touchdown run by Smith, Franklin took a 10-7 lead into halftime on a 36-yard field goal by Tanner Hutchins.
“He’s been doing a great job for us. This was probably his third or fourth field goal for the year from pretty decent range, so he’s really been a plus,” Burgos said.
