Furious rally saves Honaker
Honaker (39) vs. Northwood (26)
Written: Nov 14, 2015
By ANTHONY STEVENS
for the Daily Telegraph
HONAKER, Va. — The Tigers were able to achieve their main goal. Survive and advance. With a furious fourth quarter rally, the Tigers scored the last 22 points of the game to take a 39-26 victory over Northwood at EMATs Stadium in playoff football on Friday.
“Everyone just stepped up and did their part,” said Tiger senior Avin Parrott. “It’s an amazing feeling to win this one and be able to advance to the next game. Eight teams were knocked out this week and it’s great to be one of the eight teams that get to play next week.”
Wide receiver Brennan Turley and quarterback Eric Doane put on a show for the Panthers. The two connected for three touchdown passes. With 9:06 left to play in the game, Doane hit Turley down the middle and the speedster did the rest racing 55-yards to the end zone and a 26-17 advantage by Northwood.
“We only had one series in the third quarter with the football,” Honaker coach Doug Hubbard said. “It wasn’t a good one on top of that. My kids just kept fighting and making some plays.
“They finally settled down and did what we worked on all week long. We were able to get some turnovers and found a way to win.”
The Tigers put together a seven-play, 60-yard drive mostly on the arm quarterback Hartley Hilton.
The sophomore completed four passes in the drive, the final one a nine-yard strike to Brent Coleman. Jordan Stout added the point after as Honaker pulled within 26-24 with just over seven minutes to play.
The Panthers took the ensuing kickoff and on the second play the ran, Doane was picked off by Dalton Bailey. Honaker had the ball at the Northwood 31. Parrott had a big run to set up a 1st-and-goal inside the 10.
Hilton scored the go-ahead TD, going one-yard on a quarterback sneak. Coleman caught a pass from Hilton for the two-point conversion to go up 32-26.
Then came another miscue by Northwood. A fumble was recovered by Coleman on the Northwood 28.
“This is definitely the best game I’ve ever played,” said Coleman who was involved in several big plays for the Tigers. “Hartley was putting the ball right where it needed to be. On the fumble I was just in the right spot at the right time, Evan Harmon did a great job of forcing the fumble.”
It took only four plays for Honaker to punch it into the end zone, all on runs by Parrott. It was a big night by Parrott who had 131 yards rushing. He assumed a lot of the load when tailback Bryson Bostic was injured.
Devin Helton also came in a did a great job of rushing the football finishing with 43 yards on the ground.
“Turnovers kind of killed us tonight,” said Northwood coach Tommy Prater. “When you have four turnovers against a good football team, it’s usually going to bite you.”
Doane was 12-for-20 passing for 230 yards with four touchdowns. Turley had a huge night with seven catches for 212 yards.
Honaker (8-3) will travel to Radford for the state quarterfinals next Friday at 7 p.m. The season ended for Northwood (6-5).
At EMATS Stadium
Northwood........14 6 0 6 — 26
Honaker...........3 14 0 22 — 39
HON—Stout 30 FG, 6:39
NWD—Turley 53 pass from Doane (Turley pass from Doane), 6:28
NWD—Turley 20 pass from Doane (run failed), 5:29
HON—Parrott 21 run (Stout kick), 11:26
NWD—Keller 8 pass from Doane (pass failed), 8:15
HON—Parrott 5 run (Stout kick), 0:58
NWD—Turley 55 pass from Doane (pass failed), 9:06
HON—Coleman 9 pass from Hilton (Stout kick), 7:08
HON—Hilton 1 run (Coleman from Hilton), 4:59
HON—Parrott 8 run (Stout kick), 1:28
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TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: NWD 10, HON 15; Rushes-Yards: NWD 35-113, HON 43-202; Passing Yards: NWD 230, HON 131; Comp-Att-Int: NWD 8-17-1, HON 11-16-0; Fumbles-Lost: NWD 3-3, HON 2-2; Penalties-Yards: NWD 2-19, HON 4-33; Punts-Average: NWD 1-51, HON 5-36.2.
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