Forget David vs. Goliath
Eric Tabor
Tuesday May 15, 2007
I don't buy into this whole David and Goliath hoopla. After all, David had God on his side. What chance did Goliath really have? I don't believe that the South Georgia Wildcats really struck a blow when it beat The Florida Firecats Saturday at the Albany Civic Center.
What I do believe is that a very talented Wildcat team played a very talented Florida team in one of the most exciting af2 games I have ever seen.
What hair I have left was standing on end by the time it was over. The game had to be unbelievably emotional for fans of both teams. I wouldn't be surprised to hear about a blown pacemaker or two.
There have been better-played games, and certainly a multitude of games that have been decided in the last seconds and in overtime. But I have never seen anything like what happened in the final five minutes of the game.
For openers, South Georgia did not dominate the game the way some reports have indicated. They took advantage of Firecat mistakes to build a lead and then watched it disappear.
That brings me to that mind boggling final 21 seconds of the half. I hardly had time to take a breath or gobble a potato chip.
Firecats Quarterback Chris Wallace completed a 28 yard pass to Wide Receiver Ethnic Sands. Now with four ticks left in the second quarter, the clock should have run out during an incomplete pass, but it did not. South Georgia Wildcats Head Coach Derek Stingley gave the scorers table a stare, if looks could kill, the clock operator would be in the morgue. The question, how can you leave three tenths of a second on the clock? Wallace made good of the gift and hit former South Georgia Wildcat, now Florida Firecat receiver, Chris McKinney in the end zone for a touchdown, cutting into the Wildcats lead 33-19.
Arena football is a game of spurts. Now the Firecats made everyone at Cooper Tire Field very nervous, as Wallace hits Ethnic Sands for a score to whittle the lead down to eight.
After exchanging touchdowns, South Georgia got the ball back, and in a surprise, on-forth-and-nine on the Florida 13, South Georgia opted for a field goal. The Wildcats extended the lead 42-32.
Florida struck back with a 10 yard touchdown pass from Wallace to Chris Morant, 42-38 South Georgia.
Visions of driving for a game-ending touchdown didn't even have time to swirl in Wildcat helmets before the unbelievable happened, a fumble by Derrick Lloyd that rolled into the end zone recovered by Florida’s Tony Stubbs for a touchback. A gasp fell over the arena as Wallace worked his Magic, pun intended, as he completed a four yard pass to Benton to the South Georgia nine yard line.
A forth-and-one the pass to Benton was broken up by Daryon Brutley.
“Our DB’s stepped up,” said Coach Stingley. “We got some interceptions and pass breakups at the perfect times.”
For reasons known only to himself and his closest inner-council, Wildcat Head Coach Derek Stingley and Offensive Coordinator Rickey Foggie made a courageous call that produced the door closing touchdown. D. Bryant hit a wide open Chavis McCollister on a 40 yard TD pass. The play made Stingley and his coaching staff look like geniuses.
“We talked about it right before that play, we were running some hitches to run the clock out, but they dictated what we had to do, because they came out and pressed him,” said Stingley. “Chavis is a great athlete, he’s a slippery guy, I don’t think anybody can press him at the line of scrimmage that easy.”
From where I sat at the press booth, South Georgia is not a Cinderella team. It is not a David knocking off a Goliath. It is a darn good football team that combined with another darn good football team that gave football fans a game to remember and exaggerate about for many years to come, except that you can't exaggerate about what happened on Saturday, May 12, 2007 in Albany Georgia.
South Georgia wins 49-38.