In a rivalry showdown filled to the brim with turnovers, Tattnall comeback sinks Mount de Sales 31-18

In a game where the final score failed to reflect the closeness of the contest, Tattnall overcame a 15-2 halftime deficit to defeat Mount de Sales 31-18 at Cavalier Fields in west Macon Friday night.

The all-Macon rivalry game, which was Senior Night for the Cavaliers, featured a litany of turnovers, wacky plays and momentum swings that kept a decent crowd riled up for all 48 minutes. 

An accidental onside kick — a line drive boot that bounced off a Mount de Sales player’s cleat and into Tattnall’s lap — followed by a fumble and a pick six highlighted the last four minutes of the game in thrilling fashion.

The only people who weren’t fans of the sloppy, entertaining game were the two head coaches.

“We just have to be a more disciplined football team. Mount de Sales did a really great job. If we want to play and go deep down the line, we have to play better football and be more consistent,” Trojans head coach John Abernathy said after the game. “Way too many turnovers. We’re fumbling the ball too much.”

The difference makers for each team wore #3. 

Tattnall’s #3, running back Antone Johnson, was on and off the field with injuries for most of the game but paced the offense consistently when available. Johnson finished with 219 yards on 23 carries despite the ailments, scoring two touchdowns and converting a pair of two-point tries.

Johnson added an interception on defense, too.

“I’m a lot less stressed out when he’s on the field,” Abernathy said with a smile.

The gritty win was a big one for the Trojans, who entered the game with four consecutive victories after losing their opener. Tattnall moved to 5-1 and put itself in position for a chance at a solid playoff seed.

Mount de Sales’ #3 was sophomore quarterback Zavion Deshazier, who played a spirited game but threw some interceptions in crucial situations, one to Johnson in the third quarter and another that bounced off the hands of his receiver and into the palms of a Trojan defender in the final two minutes.

That second interception, returned by Tattnall’s Whit Davidson for the game-sealing touchdown that sent a solid Trojan road crowd into a frenzy, made the score a little more uneven than the game truly was. But the fact remained — the Cavaliers showed a lot of fight against a bigger, older team.

For head coach Gray Yates, it’s on to the next one.

“We talked all week about no moral victories, and we’re gonna stay with that because we have to keep growing as a unit. That’s the one thing we’re missing as a program, is that win over a big program,” Yates said. “Now that we have a law, I can’t go back and tell them not to trust that process… They’ve been battling and trying to get better, and they did it tonight. Just came up short.”

Almost as impactful as Deshazier was Cavaliers defensive back Jackson Rowley, who snagged a pair of pick sixes that electrified the Mount de Sales faithful in the first half.

“Jackson Rowley is one of the more underrated football players in our city. He proved that again tonight, and he gave us a chance to win a football game,” Yates said. “On a night where we’re honoring a bunch of guys who have worked hard for us, as a junior, nothing but good things for him to come.”

Those interceptions proved crucial, as the Cavaliers couldn’t punch it in on offense and had to settle for field goals. Though the defense stepped up time and again, the methodical drives from Johnson and the Trojans in the second half were too much for Mount de Sales to hold off the comeback.

“We continue to fight even when bad things happen. Our guys showed some grit and determination, so that’s exciting to see. We just got to play better football,” Abernathy said.

Turnovers galore and some big defensive stands

The Cavaliers came into the matchup in the midst of a nice rebound year, accruing a 3-4 record after going 1-9 and 2-9 in the last two seasons. That stretch included a run of 18 straight losses, including two to Tattnall.

The Trojans had defeated Mount de Sales 11 of the last 14 times the two schools met dating back to 2010, in fact, though two of the Cavaliers’ three wins came back-to-back in 2019 and 2020. The Trojans won their 11 games by an average margin of 23 points, while Mount de Sales’ three wins came by 3, 2 and 22 points.

The Cavaliers’ first drive started out with promise after a first down before they had to punt. Johnson nearly fumbled on his return to put Tattnall at its own 18-yardline to start. 

Though Johnson broke off a huge run to make up for the poor field position and get the Trojans into the red zone, the Cavs came up with a goal line stand and — thanks to a bad snap on fourth and short from inside the 15-yardline — forced a turnover on downs in the red zone.

Mount de Sales couldn’t capitalize on the defensive playmaking and had to punt, but disaster struck almost immediately for Tattnall on its next sequence when Faulk threw the pick-six to Rowley that gave the Cavaliers an early 6-0 lead and brought the crowd to its feet.

From that interception on, the remainder of the first half featured a bonanza of strange plays — odd officiating, odd play calling and odd turnovers all dotted the opening two quarters — but Mount de Sales’ defense stole the show.

Three plays into the Trojans’ next drive, Faulk threw a second pick, this one to Bryson Harrell after Tattnall had made it all the way to midfield. The Cavaliers made something of the turnover this time, getting a short-range field goal from Landon Frawley to make it 9-0.

Any time the Trojans seemed to get their feet, a new blow set them back again. After one Johnson chunk play, the star halfback went down with an injury. Tattnall return men came within inches of touching punts, giving the team bad field position and igniting the home crowd. After a seemingly explosive pass play, confusion on the down and distance meant Tattnall was a yard short on an unexpected fourth down and gave the ball back to the Cavaliers.

Then, near the end of the second quarter, the Trojans snagged some momentum. With Mount de Sales pinned on its own 2-yardline after that fourth-down debacle, a gaggle of Tattnall defenders sacked Deshazier for a safety.

Even that positive swing turned sour soon after, however. Faulk threw his third interception of the night on the subsequent drive, which Rowley returned for an improbable second pick-six on the night and making the score 15-2 after a failed two-point try.

The good defense for both teams continued for both teams in the second half, but the Trojans drove more methodically downfield on multiple drives, including one 11-play sequence from Tattnall’s own 20-yardline that ended in a Johnson touchdown and chewed more than half of the third quarter off the clock.

With the score at 15-10, it looked like Tattnall would get a shot at taking the lead when a Mount de Sales drive stalled. A Trojans return man muffed the punt at the other end, though, gifting the Cavs a fresh set of downs to set up a Landon Frawley field goal to give them an 18-10 lead over Tattnall.

Both teams traded punts until Johnson’s interception, which gave the Trojans the chance to whittle down the clock further until they scored the go-ahead touchdown with about five minutes left in the game. 

On the ensuing kickoff, the line-drive kick bounced off a Mount de Sales coverage man’s foot to give the Trojans a zany turnover and a chance to put the game away. But Mount de Sales fought back, forcing a fumble a few plays into the drive to get the ball back for a second chance.

It wasn’t to be, however, as a promising drive went by the wayside after Deshazier’s pass was bobbled and picked by Davidson to seal the 31-18 win.