After four thrilling quarters, the football team defeated Gardner Edgerton 41-35 in a matchup between last year’s 5A and 6A state champions Friday, Oct. 11. Junior running back Reggie Reece scored the go-ahead touchdown with 22 seconds remaining in the game.
The game was close, with the score always being within a one possession game. At half, the score was 14-14 in which senior quarterback Connor Bohon scored two of his three touchdowns. With a few minutes remaining in the game and the score tied 35-35, head coach Joel Applebee made the decision to trust the defense and punt the ball on 4th and 1, giving the ball back to Gardner.
According to senior kicker and punter Aiden Standley, the team’s trust in each other is a reason that they were successful.
“I trusted my coach’s decision and had faith in our defense to make that stop,” Standley said. “It’s apart of our ‘#UNBREAKABLE’ mentality. We all have trust in each other and believe we will find success.”
Applebee’s decision turned out to be the right one, as the defense came up with a huge defensive stop after forcing a turnover on downs, giving the ball back to the Jaguar offense with 55 seconds remaining in the game and setting up the go-ahead touchdown by Reece. Reece finished the night with three total touchdowns.
“I felt great [scoring the game-winning touchdown], nothing in the world felt better,” Reece said.
Senior center Zach Zaldivar believed the team’s focus and the teamwork from both sides of the ball led them to the win.
“The key for success was the fact that we were able to maintain focus and to keep a level head when we ran into adversity,” Zaldivar said. “Another huge thing is that we had the defense’s back the whole night and they had ours.”
Along with being a matchup between the 5A and 6A state champions, the game was also a rematch from last year in which the Jags suffered a tough loss 49-10. For Reece, this made the win feel even better.
“It was awesome [getting our revenge from last year],” Reece said. “I have a lot of respect for this team and everything, but I was mad about last year. It felt great to bounce back.”
Similarly, Zaldivar thought it was nice to get revenge and prove to the people who did not believe in them that they were wrong.
“As a team we were very happy because we got our get back from last year and there were a lot of doubters and haters or whatever going into the game,” Zaldivar said. “It was nice to prove them wrong but overall it was the most fun game I’ve played in all year.”
