ELKINS — If playing an entire football game in pouring rain wasn't fun enough, the Huntsville junior Eagles displayed a flair for the dramatic when they scored the only points of the game on the last play of the game last week.

With the improbable clock reading of one-tenth of one second Brandon McCrary hauled in a pass just inside the goal line to give the Eagles a hard fought 6-0 win at John Bunch Stadium.

With the weather not conducive to exciting football and each squad displaying a stingy defense the game was a defensive struggle featuring penalties, slips on the wet turf, fumbles due to a wet ball and six yard punts. Neitherteam could muster much offense as only three first downs were made in the first half and only one in the entire third quarter.

The first pass completion wasn't made until midway into the fourth quarter.

Several positive gains were met with substantial losses on the next play putting the offense in long yardage situations and limited play calling options.

In the final minutes the teams traded possessions with each gaining opportunities to either score or run out the clock to preserve a tie.

Mitchell Clark sacked the Eagle quarterback on a fourth down play deep inside Elk territory giving Elkins the ball. On the ensuing play the Elks returned the ball to the Eagles.

Logan McCollough corralled a pass at the Elkfour-yard line with three seconds remaining in the game. Huntsville called a pass play which fell incomplete in the end zone leaving one-tenth of one second remaining. McRay scored on the next play to end the game.

Huntsville coach Zack Wiggins was pleased to escape with a hard fought win.

"We knew from seeing film of Elkins that they are an excellent team," Wiggins said. "They will hit you and they are a well coached team. We had out hands full all night with Coach Shaw and his guys. It was an exciting way to win a game but it could have went the other way just as easily. We kept fighting and came out with a win." Elkins Coach Thurman Shaw, while disappointed in the loss, was optimisticabout his team.

"We played a very good team tonight and stood toe-to-toe with them and didn't back down an inch," Shaw said. "We need to eliminate the penalties and work on some things but give Huntsville credit for doing what they had to do."

Elk Tyler Casebolt commented on a hard-fought game. "Our guys fought hard the whole game. We had chances to do some things and didn't get it done. We are going to get better."

Echoing Casebolt was Elk quarterback Mitchell Clark. "We couldn't get our running game going the way we like to. The penalties put us into holes and hampered us all night."

Next on the schedule for the junior Elks is the Lavaca Golden Arrows.

Sports, Pages 6 on 09/24/2009

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