Draft goes for win, falls short

STUARTS DRAFT — After battling back from a 22-6 halftime deficit to cut the margin to one at 29-28 on a six-yard TD pass as time expired, the Cougars had one last play. They had the option to either go for the win or settle for overtime in the first Southern Valley district game of the season.

Draft coach Rod Bowers without hesitation elected to go for the win, with the momentum on his side instead of attempting the extra point. The called play was a handoff to D.J. Hines who went to the outside, but was forced to go back to midfield as AJ Scott chased him backwards before a swarm of Leemen tackled Hines in the backfield to end the game 29-28 in favor of the Leemen.

“Our defense won the game for us tonight,” said Lee coach David Tibbs. “Those guys stepped up when they had to. They made the play when it counted.”

The Cougars had stopped Lee on a fourth-down play with nearly five minutes left. Draft marched down field and found themselves on the six-yard line with two seconds remaining.

Draft elected to go to the air and Darius Woodsen found Michael Hicklin wide open in the end zone as time expired that sent the Draft crowd into pandemonium, but the Lee defense held strong for one last play sending the Lee faithful into a buzz as Hines was dropped in the backfield.

“Their was no doubt in my mind we were going to go for the win,” said Bowers. “I asked the kids, I asked the coaches and they wanted to go for it. We came to play 48 minutes. We sure didn’t want to go any extra.”

Hines was the impact player in Drafts’ comeback with two-second half touchdowns that cut the Lee lead to seven. A heavy dose of carries went to Ricky Dimitt and Hines and they pushed the ball down field on the last possession before the touchdown as time expired.

Lee had played solid first half football jumping out to an early lead and a 16-point halftime lead thanks to 171 first-half rushing yards and two touchdown runs by QB Devante White. The Leemen looked poised to run the table in the second half, but a different Stuarts Draft team came out of the locker room.

“We didn’t play Cougar football in the first half,” Bowers said. “We played 24 minutes of football and made it a game, but unfortunately if they had played 48 minutes it could have been a different story.”

White led the Lee (2-0, 1-0 Southern Valley) offense with more than 200 yards rushing and three touchdown scores in the win.

“We all came together tonight on that last play. We knew we had to stop them,” White said. “It is great to pick up a district win, but it feels even better being 2-0.”

Draft (1-1, 0-1 Southern Valley) was given a big effort from Hines with three touchdown runs of his own in the loss.