Lebanon falls on overtime field goal

Sep. 13—Blake Schofield's 31-yard field goal propelled Siegel to a 31-28 triumph over Lebanon last Friday night, spoiling the Blue Devils' quest for an undefeated season in what is believed to be the first overtime game in the 11-year history of Clifton Tribble Field/Danny Watkins Stadium.

Lebanon had a chance to score in the top of the overtime as the Blue Devils faced fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line. Siegel was called for encroachment, moving the ball to the 1. Bypassing the field goal, Coach Chuck Gentry went for the touchdown. Quarterback Jaylen Abston, who scored both Blue Devil second-half touchdowns on 9-yard runs, was stuffed at the 5, giving the Stars their set of downs at the 10 with a golden opportunity to choose which way to walk off with the upset win.

"When they got the penalty and it was fourth and this much, we felt like go for it," Lebanon coach Chuck Gentry said. "Had the penalty been on us, we were going to kick it. But it was on them and we felt like we could get a half yard. We didn't. They got us from the back side, I think."

A sideline penalty backed the Stars up 5, basically setting them up to set up for the field goal which put the visitors from north Murfreesboro at 3-1 while the Blue Devils, taking aim at their first 10-0 season since 1961, dropped to the same record.

"This one's a non-region game," said Gentry, whose Blue Devils dropped five spots to No. 8 in the latest Associated Press Class 6A poll released yesterday. "It doesn't matter in the big scheme of things. It's one of the goals we had was to go 10-0. That's not going to happen but in the grand scheme of things we're still fine."

With humidity returning, the Stars, who had enough votes in the AP poll to be an unofficial 11th, and Blue Devils battled injuries as much as each other. Siegel threw the first punch with an opening 15-play drive which saw quarterback Thomas Santel playing fourth-down Houdini to keep the drive going. They scored on another fourth-down play, a 3-yard run by Cory Sims, the first of his three touchdowns.

Both teams were plagued with penalty flags. Many of Lebanon's infractions were holding calls which negated positive plays. The teams also exchanged fumbles on consecutive plays late in the first quarter.

It took Lebanon until midway through the second quarter for Abston and the high-powered offense to strike as the senior faked handoffs to two backs before launching a 70-yard bomb to a wide-open Nolan Sandefur for a 7-7 tie.

But Siegel struck right back behind a 56-yard run by Sims, who finished with 79 yards on 16 carries, to the Lebanon 9. Santel, who completed 12 of 22 passes for 122 yards, hit a wide-open tight end Matthew Rice in the end zone to put the Stars up 14-7.

"The quarterback's a good player," Gentry said. "He gave us trouble last year and he gave us trouble again this year. We couldn't get out of our own way. We just didn't make enough plays. Hats off to them. They made more plays than we did and maybe we'll be a little better next week."

Abston answered right back with a 57-yard bomb to a diving Rubin Brinkley to the Siegel 7. Anthony Crowell took a direct snap on second down and ran it in from 4 yards to re-tie the score 14-14 with just under four minutes left in the first half.

Santel, whose escapability and hard-nosed running led to 102 yards on 20 carries despite encountering issues with his legs in the second half, escaped the Lebanon pass rush enough to find Sims from 16 yards with 36 seconds left for a 21-14 lead going into halftime.

Abston, who passed for 161 yards on 7-of-16 while running for 83 more on 16 carries, threw 24 yards to Brinkley to set up his first 9-yard scoring scamper for a 21-21 deadlock.

His other 9-yarder came on the first play of the fourth quarter to give the Blue Devils their first lead of the night 28-21.

David Aluya intercepted Santel on Siegel's next series. But Lebanon came up short on fourth down.

Siegel responded with a 2-yard run by Sims. Schofield's extra point was barely touched by Key Crowell but still sailed through the uprights to re-knot the score 28-28 with 6:16 left.

By now, Abston had had to leave the game briefly with cramps while Anthony Crowell came out twice. Crowell was back in to take a wildcat snap on fourth down, only to have to chase down an errant snap 19 yards behind the line.

Siegel drove to the Lebanon 24 before Key Crowell saved the day for the moment with an interception at the Blue Devil 17 with 1:06 to play.

But Lebanon wasted first down on a bad snap and couldn't move on second or third, forcing a punt on fourth.

From the Blue Devils' 38 with 25 ticks remaining, a Santel completion moved the ball to the 27, from where Schofield's 45-yard field-goal try sailed wide right as time expired.

Siegel won the overtime coin toss and elected to go on defense first with Lebanon's offense getting a set of downs from the 10. The final 4 of Sean Heath's 119 yards on his 20th carry, advanced the ball to the 5 and an Abston run placed it on the 2 from where Gentry had to make one of the hardest in-game decisions a coach has to make and one in which he has little influence on its outcome.

""It is what it is," Gentry said. "That decision's on me. We wanted to make them have to score a touchdown and not leave it up to the kicking game. But ultimately, he hit one there.

"We made the choice and rolled with it."

Lebanon, finished with a three-game homestand, will return to Region 3-6A action this week with a trip to Coffee County for a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday in Manchester.