Pine Whispers staff report
For the second time this season, the Reynolds High School football team won thanks to a missed field goal by its opponent in the closing seconds.
The Demons rallied for a 14-13 victory Friday night against Fleming High of Roanoke, Va. The Colonels missed a 21-yard field goal after embarking on a great final drive to set up the potential game-winner. That same situation played out in Reynolds’ second game of the season, a 15-13 win over Glenn in which the Bobcats missed from 29 yards.
Reynolds improved to 4-2 entering the start of the Central Piedmont 4-A Conference season Friday. The Demons play host to Davie County for Homecoming at Deaton-Thompson Stadium. Fleming fell to 0-5.
The Colonels took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter when Etienne Morisseau scored on a 4-yard run and Joel Ugochukwa hit the extra point. Fleming made it 13-0 in the third quarter on Tyrell Adams’ 2-yard pass to Mike Gravley.
The game turned, however, on the next sequence of events. Reynolds – which was called for 20 penalties worth 138 yards in the game – jumped offsides not once but twice as Fleming lined up for the extra-point kick. With the ball moved inside the 1-yard line, Fleming elected to try the two-point conversion, but the Demon defense stuffed the rushing attempt.
Otto Steele got Reynolds on the scoreboard with 6:18 to go in the third quarter, with his 3-yard rush and Brady Buchanan’s PAT cutting the lead to 13-7. After the teams traded punts and turnovers, the Demons finally mounted a fourth-quarter drive highlighted by first-down runs from Steele and Mike Clinton.
Bailey Tyner’s 1-yard quarterback sneak tied the score, and Buchanan’s PAT pushed the Demons ahead with exactly five minutes remaining.
Fleming converted a pair of fourth-down attempts on its way to the final field-goal attempt. The Colonels faced a fourth-down situation on the 17-yard line with 8.5 seconds to play and were about to attempt a 34-yard kick when the Demons jumped offsides. That made it first down at the 12, allowing Fleming to run one more play to get the ball to the middle of the field at the 9.
Remarkably, Reynolds jumped offsides again to put the ball at the 4, making the field goal little more than an extra-point try, but the kick missed wide left.
In statistics compiled by the Roanoke Times, Reynolds won despite being outgained 341 to 272 in total yards. Steele led the Demon offense with 67 yards on 13 carries. Tyner completed 16 of 29 passes for 129 yards but was intercepted twice. Steele added a fumble recovery and the Demon defense also blocked a field goal in the first quarter.
Reynolds was playing its second – and presumably last – game against the Virginia school thanks to a scheduling conflict that arose several years ago. When no area teams or any other school in North Carolina had an open date that matched up with the hole in the Demons’ schedule, Reynolds and Fleming agreed to a home-and-away series.
Reynolds won last year’s game 27-14 at Deaton-Thompson. Athletic director Brad Fisher said the Demons already have a full schedule for next year – without having to make a three-hour trip to Roanoke.