3 hours Ago By By BRIAN WOODSON [email protected]
CLINCHPORT — It was a play that worked in practice. It worked in a game too, at just the right time for Rye Cove. Luke Jessee caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Landon Lane with 25 seconds left on the clock to lift the Eagles to a 26-20 Region 1D championship victory over Cumberland District rival Eastside in an instant classic on Friday night at the Eagles' Nest.
"It feels great,” Jessee said. “It went from forfeiting our season not too long ago and here we are winning the regional championship. I love it.
” Rye Cove (13-0), which won its second regional title, with the first coming in 2000, will host Grayson County in the Class 1 state semifinals on Saturday. “I have got to calm down first, my heart rate is still way up,” said Rye Cove head coach Gary Collier, whose Eagles closed down its program at halftime of a game in 2021 due to the lack of healthy players. “It feels good, look around here and this community.
Everybody has just been so hungry, it just feels awful exciting and it feels very special for this community.” After Rye Cove trailed just twice all season, this rematch from an Oct. 11 contest won by the Eagles 40-8 featured six lead changes, including three in the final 2:54 minutes of the game.
The previous game was 16-8 in the fourth quarter before Rye Cove pulled away in the final seven minutes. “That is a just a tough loss. That is a good team, we are a good team, we gave it everything we had,” said Eastside running back Keldan Hamilton, who ran for 176 yards on 34 carries for the Spartans.
“It sucks, it is just a game, that is how it goes. We got beat, we made more mistakes than they did and that is how it goes.” Eastside focused it efforts on slowing down Lane, who was held to 37 yards on the ground, but was 8-for-11 for 104 yards through the air, including the game-winning play when he scrambled to the right on 3rd and 1 and threw a pass that settled into Jessee's arms in the end zone.
"Coach told me to run a slant and stop on it, just be there for the safe option and I seen the guy bite down on it so I dropped back and went deep for it and Landon threw it to me," Jessee said. "It was just the perfect throw and I was there. It was a great play.
We scored and we won." Rye Cove, which had the ball just three plays in the third quarter and trailed 14-12 going into the final period, took an 18-14 lead with 2:54 to go on a two-yard run by Cole Barnette, a play set up by Lane's 29-yard pass to Brayllen Paille to the Eastside 2-yard line. The celebration was short-lived when Eastside (11-2) freshman quarterback Landon Pannell threw a pass over the middle that was deflected by a pair of Eagles, including Barnette, before the ball settled in Luke Trent's arms and he ran the rest of 66 yards to the end zone to put the Spartans up 20-18 with 1:28 to play.
“It is just one of them plays. We tipped it twice, right in his hands and runs for a touchdown,” Collier said. “The kids never wandered, they knew we was going to get the ball back.
We had a little over a minute to go and three timeouts. Then we got a good return on the other side of the 50 so that helped. The kids never quit.
They didn’t quit all year long and they won’t quit on us, they won’t quit on themselves and they won’t quit on this community and this school. They just fight to the end.” Rye Cove, which took a 6-0 lead on an 82-yard kick return by Blake Goins on the opening kick, got good field position on a 40-yard return by Barnette to the Eastside 36.
Lane completed three short passes before the catch by Jessee in the end zone. Goins also scored on a 5-yard run to put the Eagles up 12-7 in the second period. “All I know is we had the ball three plays and a punt and with nine minutes to go in the second half that is all we had the football," Collier said.
"Two scores in four minutes, they don’t quit, they know we have some stuff in the bag and stuff we hadn’t run all night long. It opened up, Landon did a great job finding his receivers. We worked on our scramble drill, we scrambled on the touchdown pass, things we worked on.
It don’t surprise me that these kids come through for us like that.” Eastside, which took a 14-12 lead into the break on a 1-yard run by Hamilton and a 5-yard run by Trent, was able to drive the ball to the Rye Cove 21, but Pannell was hit by Hagan Rhoton as he threw the ball and the clock struck zero. Will Rollins had a monster game on defense for Rye Cove, finishing with 22 tackles.
Lane had 18 and Hamilton Osborne added 10. Eastside was led by Payton Adkins with eight stops. "We kept our heads up, that is always what Coach has us to do, keep our heads up and play through it all the way to the end no matter what because anything can happen in the last 10 seconds," said Jessee, who had five receptions for 60 yards.
"Look what happened, 26-20, and here we are and that is awesome." Eastside, which was looking for its first regional title, certainly made the Eagles sweat this one out to the very end. "They come with a great game plan, they brought it to us.
We just kept fighting and keep fighting and I told them at halftime it may come down to the last play of the game and I guess it about did," Collier said. "I am proud of these kids. They have worked so hard and to be regional champions, we always want to be better than we were last year so we have done that.
Now we have to enjoy this for a couple of days and then go back to work on Monday for Grayson County." Rye Cove, which lost its lone previous state semifinal contest against Bath County in 2000, will meet Grayson County on Saturday, as the Blue Devils defeated those same Chargers 20-0 on Friday. "We have got to get ready for the next one," Jessee said.
"We have got 46 hours and we are on to the next one.” Eastside 7 7 0 6 - 20 Rye Cove 12 0 0 14 - 26 Scoring RC-Goins 82 kick return (run failed) ES-Hamilton 1 run (Raymond kick) RC-Goins 5 run (run failed ES-Trent 5 run (Raymond kick) RC-Barnette 2 run (run failed) ES-Trent 66 pass from Pannell (run failed) RC-L.Jessee 20 pass from L.
Lane (L.Lane run).
