Carroll Academy senior receiver Noah Beck had his “Jimmy Chitwood” moment on Friday night against Winston Academy.
In the popular sports movie “Hoosiers,” Chitwood told coach Norman Dale “I’ll make it,” as the fictional Hickory High was going for a state championship in the last seconds against South Bend Central.
On Friday night, the Rebels faced a similar situation as they scored with less than four minutes to go in the game and faced a crucial two-point conversion that would win the game.
Beck, who broke his hand the week before and had a cast with bubble wrap around it, told coach Bo Milton not to worry, “throw it to me, I’ll catch it.”
That’s just what Beck did as Carroll rallied from a 19-0 deficit to take a 20-19 comeback win over Winston Academy on Friday night.
Carroll improved to 6-4 on the season and will host Bowling Green on Friday night in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs.
Milton said the memorable finish capped off a wild second-half rally by the Rebels to end senior night on a positive note.
“It was a wild game,” Milton said. “I thought it showed our toughness, especially in the second half. We were down 19-0 but they never quit and kept playing the game. The first half was on me, I didn’t have them ready to go. But I told them at halftime that how they responded to adversity would define them as men the rest of their life. So the second half was the complete opposite. And when we got the pick 6, you could feel the momentum change, and it was a different game. I thought we played our butts off.”
The Patriots dominated the first half as they built an early lead. Their first score came on a fumble recovery and return to the Carroll 7 early in the first. Three plays later, a scrambling Winston quarterback hit a 15-yard touchdown pass and the Patriots led 7-0.
After a Carroll punt, Winston then went 61 yards in seven plays and scored on an 11-yard run. The PAT was blocked, and Winston led 13-0.
Carroll avoided another Winston score after a short punt as Nathan Matthews intercepted a pass. Then late in the second quarter, Carroll squandered a chance to score in the red zone after a Maddox Carpenter interception.
“We just shot ourselves in the foot in the first half,” Milton said. “We had one touchdown called back and had an interception and didn’t score and missed another opportunity inside the 5. It seemed like every time we got a drive going, we got a penalty. We would do something to stop our momentum.”
The Patriots got the ball to start the second half and seemed to be in control as they went 48 yards in six plays and scored on a 25-yard run. The try for two failed, and the Patriots led 19-0.
But Carroll started its comeback bid as the Rebels went 61 yards in seven plays and scored on 5-yard run. The PAT failed, and Winston led 19-6.
But on the ensuing possession, the Carroll defense got in on the scoring act as Drake Dunn intercepted a Winston pass and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown. The try for two failed, and Winston held onto a 19-12 lead.
After losing a fumble on the first play of the fourth quarter, the Rebels put together a drive for the ages, going 99 yards in 14 plays. Blaylock capped off the drive with a 3-yard run to pull within one of the Patriots. Then Milton rolled the dice and went for two as Blaylock hit Noah Beck, who was playing with a broken hand and cast, on the two-point conversion.
The Rebels then held the Patriots on downs, to take the win.
“There was 3:50 left on the clock, and we decided to go for two,” Milton said. “We ran our swinging gate play. You would think that Winston would line up to it right considering that they run it. Brennan, Noah and Mathis all said they thought it was open and wanted to go for it. We threw it to Noah, who had bubble wrap on his right hand. Noah said he would catch it if we threw it to him and he did. I thought Noah, Brennan, Mathis and Maddox were warriors all night long. They really got after it.”
Carroll had 141 yards rushing and 52 passing for 193 yards of total offense.
With Noah Beck limited, Blaylock struggled in the passing game, going 3-of-14 for 62 yards. Blaylock also had 50 yards rushing on 11 carries while Carpenter had 50 yards on 19 carries. Mathis Beck had 36 yards on 10 carries.
Carpenter led a strong defensive effort with nine tackles and an interception while Mathis Beck had eight tackles and two sacks. Reid Blaylock had seven tackles while Noah Beck, Blaylock and Nathan Matthews each had six tackles. Dunn had four tackles plus the interception and return for a touchdown.
This week’s game
The Rebels will host a Class 4A playoff off game this week as Bowling Green comes to town.
Bowling Green is the No. 10 seed and 4-6 on the season. They have wins over Centreville (26-18), Wayne (36-21), Sylva Bay (40-14) and Columbia (49-29). There losses are to Tri-County (49-0), Brookhaven (28-7), Silliman (21-13), Presbyterian Christian (35-18), Parklane (51-20) and Oak Forest (42-13.
“They are about 99 percent run the football out of the wing-T and I would think that would go to our strength of stopping the run,” Milton said. “We have done a really good job of stopping that this year.”
