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Indians getting better but lose in OT

10/8/2020

By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
Everything about Mont-gomery County High School’s trip to play football at Greenup County last Friday night was an improvement over the previous two weeks.
Except that the contest still shows up in the loss column for the Tribe.
The Indians rallied from a 14-0 halftime deficit to tie the game by dominating the second half before the Musketeers recovered and won the game in overtime, 21-14.
The loss left the Indians with an 0-3 mark as they head into back-to back-to back district encounters against Great Crossing, Scott County and Frederick Douglass.
Friday night’s game featured a tough start for the Tribe as they received the opening kickoff but on their first offensive play, Greenup County’s Hunter Bonzo picked off a pass and ran it back 19 yards to the Indians’ 22 yard line.
From there the Musketeers scored in only three plays with fullback Chase Adkins going in from two yards out just 67 seconds into the game to give Greenup County a 6-0 lead.
That’s how the score remained over the next 22 minutes until Greenup County got the football late in the first half at their own 45 following a Montgomery County punt.
The Musketeers drove down the field in 15 plays, three times converting on third down and once on fourth down to reach the end zone on another two-yard run by Adkins with just 15 seconds to play in the first half.
Then, in what turned out to be a crucial play in the game, holder Garrett Kinney picked up the snap and raced around right end for a two-point conversion that made it 14-0 at the intermission.
At that point the Tribe looked like it was in for another decisive loss after the Musketeers erupted in the second half last season on their home field for a 52-14 win.

Tale of two halves
But this time around things would be different.
Montgomery County came out of the halftime break and recovered an onside kick at the Greenup County 47.
Coach Jamie Egli said at halftime that the Indians were going to feature a steady diet of fullback Devin Johnson in the second half and that’s exactly what happened.
The Indians went 47 yards in 14 plays, all rushing plays.
Johnson carried the ball on 10 of those plays with Jacob Diallo running the ball three times and one play resulting in a penalty.
Montgomery County was able to convert twice on third down and once on fourth down with Johnson scoring from a yard away with 5:41 to play in the third quarter and then sophomore quarterback Alex Hatton tossed a two-point conversion pass to Johnson to cut the Musketeer lead to 14-8.
The key play in the drive was Johnson’s 12-yard pick-up on third and 10 from the Greenup County 34.
Montgomery County came right back and recovered a second on-side kick and began another drive for what looked like it would be a touchdown.

Tribe to the air
This time around it was a pair of Hatton pass completions, one to Harrison Haddix of eight yards to begin the drive and then a 20-yard completion to Tanner Donaldson with the Tribe facing fourth down and five from the Greenup County 33, that gave the Indians a chance to score again.
However, the Tribe would lose a fumble at the Greenup County seven yard line with 2:54 to play in the third period.
The Musketeers drove all the way to the Montgomery County 14 before losing a fumble two plays into the final period.
That third turnover of the second half led to an 85-yard scoring march in just four plays to tie the score.
Hatton connected with Donathan on a 57-yard aerial to begin the drive with the sophomore finally being taken out of bounds at the Greenup County 28.
Devin Johnson then took over with runs of 25, two and one to reach the end zone with 10:45 to play. Then a run for the two-point conversion failed, leaving the two teams tied. 14-14.
The Indians stopped the Musketeers on downs, threw an interception and then got the football back on downs at their own 33 yard line with 5:17 to play.
The Indians marched down the field with Johnson picking up 17 yards on one play and Hatton hitting Donathan for a 15-yard gain on another.
Eventually the Indians had the football first and 10 at the Greenup County 15.
But four consecutive incomplete passes over a :23 span gave the ball back to Greenup County with just six seconds left in regulation.

The overtime
Montgomery County got to go on defense first in the overtime period and the Musketeers scored on a two-yard run on fourth down by senior Quintan Farrow.
Carson Wireman kicked the extra point to make it 21-14.
Johnson was held to a yard on Montgomery County’s first play and then he caught a four-yard pass from Hatton.
On third down, Corey Barber took the ball down to the two yard line and on fourth down, Johnson, on his 30th carry of the game got stopped inside the 1.
Johnson finished the night with 147 yards on those 30 carries.
“Just a great effort by him and by our young offensive line,” Egli said. “We’re disappointed with the loss but I think everyone saw the improvement.
“This was really like our first game of the season since we didn’t have the benefit of our pre-season scrimmages, which we really needed with so many young players,” he added.
Montgomery County out-gained Greenup County, 308 to 239 in total yards.
“What a great job by our defense,” Egli said. “They looked so much better. Players were flying around and making plays and that’s what we’ve got to have.”
Senior running back Quintan Farrow rushed for 108 yards on 20 carries and scored the game-winning touchdown and that was almost half of the Musketeers offensive total.
Greenup County improved to 2-1 with the victory.
The two teams were playing at Greenup for the second straight season and now the Musketeers will travel to Cunningham Field for games in 2021 and 2022.