HONAKER — The Tigers had high aspirations before the season began. They continue to take steps toward that goal. Honaker has the opportunity to play for a Region 1D title after a thrilling come-from-behind 44-30 victory over Patrick Henry in the regional semifinals at Fuller Field.
The game started on a cloudy, dreary Saturday afternoon, and the Tiger’s chances appeared meager. Trailing 15-8, Honaker lost a fumble that Nicholas Hudson recovered for the Rebels on the Honaker 31. On their sixth play after the turnover, quarterback Ryan Brown found Eli Delp wide-open in the middle of the field with a 12-yard TD pass. Noah Reuleaux kicked the point afterward to give the Rebels a 22-8 advantage with a mere 28 ticks left on the clock before the break.
It seemed the Tigers would go into the locker room down 14 points, with the Rebels due to receive the second-half kickoff and momentum squarely in Patrick Henry’s locker room.
But Aidan Lowe took the ensuing kickoff and returned it 20 yards to the Honaker 38. Quarterback Peyton Musick then threw a 34-yard strike to Parker Bandy, moving the ball to the PH 28. After a timeout, Bandy grabbed another pass from Musick and weaved his way through defenders, breaking tackles to score with three seconds to spare.
“Peyton threw me a great ball there,” Bandy said. “I used a stiff arm, and Malachi [Lowe] set me up with a great block, and I cut right off him into the end zone.”
Musick powered up the middle on a quarterback-keeper for the two-point conversion, and Honaker was down only six, and the energy shifted to their side of the field.
“I thought we scored with too much time on the clock,” PH coach Seth Padgett said. “I thought it would be enough if we could get them down to about 20 seconds, but it wasn’t. That was huge; we had all the momentum going and played great in the first half. They hit a couple of big passes there, which was the key to this game. That was the big difference.”
It was a critical point in the contest.
“It would have made it a lot more difficult without that touchdown,” Honaker coach Todd Tiller said. “It was great to get that score and only be down one score. That was huge for us.”
Honaker faced a deficit, but the sun came out in the second half, brightening the Tiger’s chances.
The Honaker defense did a great job of containing elusive PH senior running back Camron Goodspeed in the game, especially in the second half.
“Goodspeed is a big factor on their team,” defensive lineman Tyler Cole said. “He’s really fast. We had to fill the holes and stretch him out to the sideline. We knew what we had to do, we had to give everything we had. We just tried to clog the holes and not give them anywhere to go.”
The Rebels took the second-half kickoff and picked up a couple of first downs. The Tiger defense tightened up, and they punted on a 4th and 14th. It went off the side of the punter’s foot and only traveled 12 yards.
Aidan Lowe had two rushes, gaining eight yards each for a first down at the PH 35. Then, an amazing thing happened. Honaker was whistled for three consecutive ‘false start’ penalties. A 1st-and-10 deep in Rebel territory became a 1st-and-25 at the Honaker 46. No problem, Bandy ran a fly pattern and was hit in stride by Musick with a 54-yard TD pass to tie the game.
“Me and Peyton worked out all summer, every single day,” Bandy said. “We’re best friends, we both love football. We knew we had to score, Coach [Shane] Wicks gave us a great play there. We knew we had to make some defensive adjustments when we went in at halftime. Coach Tiller changed some stuff up, and we shut them down.”
It was three plays and a punt for the Rebels in the ensuing series. It didn’t work out for the Rebels, Brayden Marsh blocked the punt, and Honaker recovered on the PH 20. Lowe had a 19-yard run but was knocked out of bounds at the one. In the next play, Lowe punched it in and added the two-point conversion, and the Tigers had the lead 30-22 and were on their way.
Lowe added another TD on a seven-yard rush. Musick contributed an 18-yard score.
Patrick Henry’s (8-4) only score in the second half came on a 99-yard interception return by Jebediah Stewart.
Musick was 15-of-31 passing for 268 yards, and Bandy caught nine passes for 187 yards, with those two combining on three TDs.
“Me and Parker just connect,” Musick said. “We know what each other are going to do, and it helps us out so much in this game.
“We started a little flat, and we need to get that out of our system. We played well after halftime. We slowed down and calmed ourselves down. Aidan Lowe had an amazing game, he carried us, too.”
Lowe had 99 yards rushing on 15 carries with two TDs.
It’s another rematch as the Tigers host Rye Cove in the Region 1D championship on Saturday.
“We have to clean some stuff up, just little things that we need to do better at,” Tiller said. “It’s on, the Cove gave us a heck of a game earlier. We look forward to it. We’ve answered the call every time, sometimes it doesn’t look pretty, but we’re ready.”