In a matchup between two cross county rivals, you never know what to expect. Both teams came out looking for a win, and would stop at nothing to get it. Thomas Stone’s option attack was driving the Braves crazy until they constructed a defense to stop it. At which point, the Brave’s offense woke up, and started moving the ball on the Stone defense.
The game started with a Cougars 3 and out, which Chopticon capitalized on in an unlikely way. The holder on field goals, Riley Mcmullen, faked a field goal, and scrambled to his right. Just before he was hit, he lofted a jump ball down by the goal line, which was tipped by a Cougar defender, and fell in to the arms of the kicker Andrew Knight. Stone on their next possession, went into pure option offense, and drove down the field using strong-nosed runs. Eventually Josh Newman broke one loose and scored on a 20 yard touchdown run. The point after was up, and good, and we were tied at 7 apiece. On their next possession, Chopticon quarterback Eric Reese threw a pick to Stone’s Sadiq Rose. Two plays later, Stone had punched through again, and Josh Newman picked up his second touchdown run, this time on a 40 yarder to push the lead to 13-7. Chopticon responded with a 3 and out, and Taejon Gray took off on a 45 yard touchdown run two plays later.  This pushed the lead to 18-7. Reese threw another interception two plays into their drive, this one to Trevon Bennett.  Bennett capitalized with a 7 yard touchdown run of his own to push the lead to 25-7 Stone, with 7:52 left in the half. On Chopticon’s next possession, they resorted a lot to the screen pass, and eventually found a seam in the Cougar defense and Eric Reese connected with Josh Rackey on a 30 yard touchdown pass to cut the Stone lead to 25-14. Stone pushed one more touchdown across before the half, this one on a 5 yard carry by Bennett.  Going into halftime, the score was 31-14 Thomas Stone, and Stone looked to be running away with it.
Not so fast. After a scoreless third quarter, in which Eric Reese threw two more interceptions, Chopticon turned it on in the fourth quarter.  Aided by Stone failed fake punts, they pushed two touchdown runs by Brandon Blackwell across the board. The two runs were 40, and 3 yards out. The latter of the two came with 5:47 left in the game, and made it a 3 point game. At this point, walking on the Thomas Stone sidelines, there was a large amount of empty mustard packets blowing around as they began to succumb to cramps. Stone got the ball back, and held onto it, milking the clock until a 4th and 4 from the Brave 30 yard line. Initially, the Cougars converted it; however an illegal block in the back nullified the conversion and made it a 4th and 14. Stone attempted a pass which ended up being intercepted, and the Braves took over with 0 timeouts, and 78 yards to march.  They marched down the field, aided by a few runs down the sideline, and some spikes. A 4th and 15 from the stone 37 yard line arose. Chopticon’s quarterback Reese dropped back, faded to his right and heaved a prayer, to have it tipped around and reeled in by his teammate with 2 seconds left at the Cougars 12 yard line. They converted the fourth down. They rushed their field goal team out to attempt to tie the game, and send it to overtime. Well, the kicker rushed, and pushed his kick wide left of the uprights, and no good.  As the Cougars celebrated their victory, the Braves players were collapsed in a heap at various points on the field, just amazed that they had just lost.
Stone improves to 1-1, while Chopticon drops to also 1-1. Standings and a full recap of the weeks action will be out later this weekend. For live updates for our SMAC Game of the Week, follow us @TheBayNet Sports.