LAURINBURG — Just as they were last year, the Scotland Fighting Scots’ hopes of returning to the state championship were crushed on a final play.
With fifth-seeded Scotland trailing by a point to the No. 13 Northern Nash Knights and 1.8 left shown on the game clock, kicker Cameron Cole looked to play hero as he did in the Scots’ first game when he connected on a 37-yard field goal attempt to lift them over Southern Durham. This time, though, his try was from seven yards back at 44 yards.
The ball was snapped, the hold was good … but the kick was blocked, ending Scotland’s season with a 45-44 third-round exit in the 3A state playoffs to Northern Nash Friday night.
“Congratulations to Northern Nash,” Scotland head coach Richard Bailey said. “They’ve got a really good football team, well coached. Their kids played well. They’ve got some really good dudes, good players, and we do, too. And I feel bad. We just didn’t get enough stops tonight. They made more plays.
“That was right at the edge of his range; have to kick the ball a little lower to be able to get it there. And they jumped up and blocked it. I don’t know if it was on target or not. I couldn’t tell, but I don’t want that to diminish the fact that Cameron’s had a great year for us. I know nobody feels worse than he does right now. And we did pick him up, trust me.”
Bailey said he thought about calling a Hail Mary — the same play the Scots lost to last year in the playoffs against Terry Sanford — instead of going for the field goal but was ultimately more confident in Cole.
“It came down to a Hail Mary or a 44-yarder,” Bailey said. “Cam’s made it about that far in practice before, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. Odds were probably better of that than a Hail Mary.”
With just under seven minutes to go, Scotland (10-3) got the ball back at its 20-yard line with an interception made by Dajuan Gibson, a wide receiver who also plays defensive back, in the Scots’ end zone. One play later, it was a foot race between running back Zay Jones and several Northern Nash defenders. Jones won the sprint and scored an 80-yard rushing touchdown to put Scotland ahead 44-38.
But on the ensuing extra point, Cole’s kick was low, tipped at the line, and fell to the ground for an unsuccessful try.
“Unfortunately, we missed the extra point,” Bailey said. “It came down to special teams, and we had a chance. It was going to be tough.”
Northern Nash (12-1) took almost 4 1/2 minutes off the clock on the succeeding drive, which saw a fumble that was recovered by them, and RB Azariah Loring pounded in the game-tying score on a run from the Scotland 2-yard line with 1:40 left, followed by the extra point that was right down the middle by Tristan Murray to give the Knights the lead.
“At some point, we’ve got to play better defense,” Bailey said. “You can’t cover up everything. And unfortunately, we’re a little depleted at some spots, and you just can’t hide it against good teams.”
Despite two close calls for Northern Nash to intercept the ball and multiple penalties that were called before the snap, Scotland was able to convert a third-and-1 just past midfield with a run by Jones with under 30 seconds to go and get a one-handed grab from WR Quatavius Everette, who closed with four receptions for 47 yards, to get the ball within the Northern Nash 35 to help set up Cole’s attempt two plays later.
“We made some plays there at the end,” Bailey said. “They (the Knights) were playing kind of soft and wide. We thought we could sneak a run in there to Zay, maybe get 15 yards, and be in field-goal range. Unfortunately, they stuffed us. I don’t know how they knew it, but they knew it on that play, and if I could have anything back, it’d be that call right there. But then, we did end up picking up a little bit of yards, getting close to where we had a shot. But (Everette), (Gibson), Ji’San, Zay — all those guys played great. Our offensive line played great. Again, it sucks to score 44 points and lose.”
The Scots went out 3-0 after their first drive ended in a 35-yard field goal from Cole before the Knights’ Barion Strickland returned the ensuing kickoff inside the Scotland 10-yard line. A penalty on the kickoff called on Scotland, then another penalty on the next play, moved the ball to the 3-yard line, where WR Trey Battle punched in a Northern Nash TD running out of the wildcat formation just under four minutes into the game.
Scotland took up nearly seven minutes of the game clock on its next possession, which was capped off with a McPhatter run in the end zone on the goal line to put the Scots back in front 10-7.
Battle returned the following kickoff to the Scotland 13-yard line, setting up Northern Nash in excellent field position again. But the Knights were stopped and forced to take a 29-yard field goal attempt, which was good to tie the game at 10-10 four seconds into the second quarter.
“We had trouble covering the stuff,” Bailey said. “They had good guys. It was like there was nobody good to kick it to. There were no good options, so to speak. Usually, there’s somebody we can pick out to kick it to, but they had really good players back there, and we also had some injuries where we had some guys that hadn’t been on kickoff team out there a little bit tonight. That didn’t help, but no excuses.”
Gibson, who finished with a career-high 10 catches for 151 yards, caught a 54-yard TD reception on the next Scotland drive to make it 17-10. Then, after defensive lineman Dylan Tilson strip-sacked Northern Nash QB Elijay Pitt to force a fumble recovered by Scotland at the Knights’ 31, Gibson caught another TD pass, this time of nine yards, to extend the Scots lead to 24-10.
At that point, Scotland had already played two series without Jones in the game. Scotland finished the half without Jones after it was reported that he had a chest injury. Jones didn’t return until after halftime when Bailey said he would “try and give it a go.”
“Missing Zay or Zay having to come out for something obviously makes a difference because he’s a heck of a player,” Bailey said. “Corheim (Hasty) stepped up and did some good stuff. He had some good runs. I thought Corheim ran well. We threw the ball effectively. We really did tonight. And I thought (Ji’San) played well for us.”
McPhatter was 16-for-23 passing for 213 yards and an interception and had eight rushes for 26 yards on the night; Jones had 22 carries for 245 yards; and Hasty had 12 carries for 80 yards.
Following a goal-line stand by the Scots as time expired in the first half, the Knights popped back in the end zone on the opening drive of the third quarter with a 3-yard rush by RB Dywhaun Mitchell. Jones answered on the next drive with an 8-yard run for a score to build Scotland’s lead to 31-17 after the extra point from Cole, but Pitt responded with a 5-yard TD run to help bring the Knights back to a seven-point deficit with 5:05 remaining in the third.
McPhatter threw an interception to linebacker Garrett Graham on Scotland’s subsequent drive, which led to the Knights getting the ball at midfield. With 49.9 left before the fourth quarter, Pitt found Mitchell for a 14-yard TD pass to help even the score at 31-31 once the extra point was true.
In the fourth, Jones spun his way into an open running lane in the middle of the field for a 13-yard rushing TD not even 80 seconds into the period. Northern Nash WR Jaquille Arrington pulled in a 14-yard reception for a score to help put the game at 38-38 once again with 8:32 left before Gibson’s forced turnover on the following drive.
On the drive where Gibson made the interception, Everette was leveled by a Northern Nash defender and managed to get up but fell back on the field. Everette was helped off by medical trainers and returned to the game, but no flag was thrown on the play, which had Bailey heated.
“I still can’t believe they didn’t call that targeting,” Bailey said. “That was huge, and that was as bad a targeting as you’re going to have. I’m not a fan of ejecting people for targeting, but you’ve got to call that. I mean, that was a forceful contact to the head. And if you ain’t going to call that one, man, you might as well not even have a rule.”
Pitt had 142 yards on 11-for-17 passing and 18 rushes for 72 yards for Northern Nash; Mitchell had 15 carries for 76 yards; WR Brandon Ricks had two catches for 61 yards; Arrington had five receptions for 57 yards; and WR Randall King had four grabs for 37 yards.
Scotland allowed 366 yards, while Northern Nash allowed 575. Scotland’s 44 points were the most Northern Nash had given up in the last 52 games, which goes back to September 2019.
Northern Nash will take on the No. 1 Havelock Rams next Friday in the fourth round after the Rams defeated the No. 25 J.H. Rose Rampants 20-6 Thursday night to stay alive in the playoffs.