GUYTON — Brandon Jenkins could only think one thing with a slim lead and Jenkins High knocking on the door again in the final minute.
“Holy Cow,” Jenkins said. “We’ve got to stop them.”
Jenkins, along with fellow South Effingham defensive linemen Stone Parsons, Conner Broyles and Hunter Dean, bowed up and stuffed Jenkins High quarterback Brenden Carter twice inside the 2-yard line in the final 10 seconds to hold off the Warriors 25-21 in a non-region thriller Friday night.
Everybody in the stadium knew Carter would carry it in the clutch after running for 212 yards on 28 carries to go with 227 passing yards and two scores, one rushing and one throwing.
“I’d have done the same thing,” South Effingham head coach Donnie Revell said of Carter getting the ball at the goal line twice. “That’s who I’d have given it to. They never quit. They took the ball almost (70) yards on that last drive and we were just fortunate enough to make that last play that kept them out.”
It was literally a walk-off defensive stand. Carter took the final snap after a timeout at the Mustangs’ 1 with seven seconds left. He bobbled it momentarily and then ran into a wall in front of the end zone chalk.
“We knew (Carter) was going to keep it, and we knew they were going to run it up the middle,” Jenkins said. “We all went inside and it was right there on the goal line.”
It was just about the only time South Effingham slowed the explosive Carter in the second half. After his team trailed 13-8 at the break, Carter ran for 155 yards in the second half and led the Warriors (1-1-1) on two scoring drives to take a 21-13 lead with 7:26 to play. Arkeem Byrd scored on a 10-yard run to take that lead after Carter punched in a 5-yard run with 1:55 left in the third to go up 14-13 after a failed two-point try.
Then the Mustangs (2-0) scored twice in the final 6:17 to rally before holding on tight at the end. South Effingham tailback Patrick Brown broke loose on a 52-yard scoring jaunt with 6:17 to play, but the Mustangs still trailed 21-19 after missing on the two-point conversion.
South Effingham’s Corey Horne plowed in on a 10-yard run out of the Mustangs’ jumbo formation with 2:59 left to go up 25-21 before Carter and the Warriors had one last uppercut left that just missed.
“We didn’t help ourselves in the first half,” Jenkins’ coach Tim Adams said. “I thought we left some points out there.”
He was right, and he also may have been right about a controversial call that turned the tide of the game in the fourth quarter after a Warriors’ punt appeared to hit a Mustang player in the back before Jenkins recovered. Officials ruled the ball did not touch South Effingham, which took over possession and then took the lead.
“We punt and hit the guy in the back, and they say it didn’t hit him,” Adams said, “How big is that?”
Jenkins covered plenty of ground in the first half, tallying 264 yards of offense, but two fourth down stops inside the Mustangs’ 30-yard line killed drives. The Warriors also made a huge blunder early in the second quarter when their return man allowed a kickoff to fall that was recovered by Kyle Zeigler at the Jenkins 17.
Mustangs’ sophomore running back Nick Reno cashed in on the mistake with a 15-yard touchdown run to put South Effingham ahead 13-0 after the point after failed with 11:54 left before half.
The Warriors answered late in the first when Carter connected with Malik Benlevi on a 34-yard scoring strike with 2:42 remaining in the half. Juan De La Rosa punched in a short two-point conversion throw from Carter to cut the Mustangs’ lead to 13-8.
South Effingham took an early 7-0 lead when new offensive coordinator Bragg Thompson pulled out a trick play for the second week in a row, running a double reverse to wide receiver Tyler Hagan, who hit quarterback Tyler Pullum in the end zone for an 8-yard score on third-and-goal.
Pullum finished with 139 yards passing and 50 yards rushing. Brown ran for 79 yards in the Mustang win.
South Effingham hosts cross-town rival Effingham County Friday, while Jenkins is off this week before beginning region play against Ware County Sept. 20.