FPD completes furious comeback with 27-20 overtime win over rival Tattnall to secure region title

The last time FPD head coach Brett Collier was surrounded by so many fans was after a state championship.

On this night, he and his team — and that fan base — might have been more exhausted.

“I’ve never been in one like that,” Collier said. “I don’t wanna be in one like that again.”

Well, if it ends the same way, he’ll be fine.

FPD was in a 20-3 hole at halftime and on the verge of a bigger one midway through the third quarter, but scored on three straight possessions and survived a surprising missed field goal at the end of regulation to pull out a 27-20 win Friday night in overtime over Tattnall for the GIAA District 6-3A championship.

“That was wild,” FPD’s second-year head coach said. “That was the wildest one I’ve ever been a part of, right there at the end.”

Tattnall (7-2/3-1) came in perhaps the healthiest it had been all year, and it showed with a solid first half and 20-0 lead. The Vikings (9-1/4-0) managed a 22-yard field goal late in the second quarter only for Tattnall to answer with a touchdown with five seconds left.

“We told them to keep pressing, what we were doing was working,” Tattnall head coach John Abernathy said. “We said they’re going to make some changes, we have to respond to it. Some bad things are going to happen, we have to stay up.”

Then the Trojans ate up more than half of the third quarter only to be stopped on fourth and 2 at the FPD 12.

Still, Abernathy didn’t see the spark he expected.

“I felt like as soon as we came out, for whatever reason, we were dead,” Abernathy said.

The Vikings marched 89 yards on 14 plays as wideout Benjamin McElreath began putting on a pass-catching clinic, especially dazzling with a number of tightrope sideline catches. He caught five Major Simmons passes for 44 yards on the drive including the 4-yard touchdown, his toes getting in the right corner of the end zone.

Defensive adjustments at halftime again paid off with a Tattnall three and out, the Vikings starting on their 29-yardline.

Facing a staggering third and 28, Simmons scrambled — as he spent much of the night doing — and found an inexplicably open McElreath for a 60-yard gain down the right sideline, McElreath shedding almost half-dozen tackle attempts before finally going down.

“When they started driving the football is when I felt the wind kind of go out of our lungs,” Abernathy said. “They found somebody they could get the ball to, and they got the ball to him. And we struggled to guard that guy.”

McElreath finished with a whopping 220 yards on 11 catches, Simmons completing 16 of 24 for 268 yards.

“One thing at halftime I was kicking myself about is he didn’t touch it enough,” Collier said. “You gotta get a guy like him the ball, and I didn’t do a good job of that in the first half.”

Five snaps later, Simmons went left and reversed his field and drew defenders toward his scramble, then threw to Heisman Alvarez deep in the end zone for the 11-yard score to make it 20-17 with 7:38 left in the game.

FPD forced another three and out and took over on its 13 with 5:20 left.

Somehow, McElreath was unescorted downfield and hauled in a 50-yarder on the first play. Tattnall stepped up and forced a 23-yard Dominic Economopoulos field goal with 1:54 left to tie it.

The Trojans began on their 17-yardline and looked to get a first down and head to overtime, but Peyton Howard reached out and picked off an off-target and low pass to set up the Vikings at the 17.

Amazingly, though, Economopoulos’ 33-yard was barely wide left.

“That’s what they said,” Collier said.

The Trojans covered the 25 yards in overtime in five plays, Simmons going right and dropping in a perfect touch pass over a flat-footed defender to Tinsley Lewis from the 11.

FPD’s defense got a second and third wind and sent Tattnall back five yards on first down, swarmed quarterback Caden Faulk into an illegal forward pass to an offensive lineman as he was going down for a loss of down and a loss of yards, then dropped him 15 yards more behind the line to set up a fourth and 32 at the 47.

The pass into double coverage was knocked down, and the Vikings had their first region/district title since 2021.

Antone Johnson managed 77 yards on 22 carries with a touchdown. Tattnall lost yards on the ground otherwise, with Faulk passing for 165 yards.

The Trojans were going for their first such trophy case addition since 2016.

“Obviously the kids were upset, but there were some bright spots in leadership,” said Abernathy, who saw the kind of postgame reaction from his team he wanted to see. “Number one team in the state, you lose in overtime, that’s something to build on.”

The Vikings got plenty out of the evening other than a win and hardware.

“Listen, they’re a really good football team,” Collier said. “They’ve got some talented guys and they played hard. We knew we’d get their best, and we did.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct an error stating that Jayden McCauley intercepted a pass for the Vikings. FPD player Peyton Howard recorded the interception, not McCauley.