September 19, 2015
Hayti hangs on against surging Portageville 33-27
But not even five second half turnovers could derail the Indians while Portageville made its frantic comeback.
By Chris Pobst - Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
PORTAGEVILLE -- Hayti did all it could to give away Friday's game against Portageville.
But not even five second half turnovers could derail the Indians while Portageville made its frantic comeback.
Hayti hung on for a 33-27 win after nearly squandering a 27-point lead at halftime for its fourth win in a row.
"This is the first true gut-check we've had this year and we survived," Hayti head coach Neal Cruce said. "We passed the test. Maybe not with an A-plus, but we passed."
The Indians (4-1) allowed 21-unanswered points to a Portageville team that went to the air to find its success in the second half. The Bulldogs scored on three straight possessions with its last at the 11:48 mark in the fourth quarter.
Portageville's last three drives ended with a turnover on downs until the Indians were able to hold on to the ball and pick up one final first down to escape.
"Offense was firing on all cylinders and then all of a sudden we come to an abrupt stop in the second half," Cruce said. "We can't have that."
Hayti quarterback Maurice Farr threw for two scores and ran for another while leading his team to its 33-6 lead at halftime. He finished with 112 passing yards and 30 rushing yards while taking advantage of good field position in the first half.
"We felt like we had the game won," Farr said. "We're up big and mentally we thought we had it. Coach told us it was going to be a tough game, a dog fight. It turned into a dog fight."
Portageville quarterback Jon Garrett Kellams found his rhythm in the second half throwing for 116 of his 181 passing yards the final two quarters. Kellams finished 20 of 42 with four touchdowns and one interception.
The three-year starter has come to excel in Portageville's new offense that's centered more around four-receiver sets.
"This is a new offense and we're not near where we're going to be with it," Bullock said. "Johnny's a great competitor and just a good kid. As far as a drop-back passer and running an offense, I wouldn't trade Johnny for anybody. He got in a rhythm tonight and threw well."
Three straight Hayti fumbles resulted in three straight touchdowns for Portageville during one stretch in the second half making a once four touchdown advantage in peril.
"It's mechanics," Farr said. "With the athletes we have, we feel like we can break one and tend to lose our mechanics when we see it. With repetition, that can be fixed."
Portageville (2-3) began its resurgence after a rare fumble from Hayti running back Jamal Brooks at their own 20-yard line. After four plays, Kellams found Ian Torrey on a 9-yard fade route into the endzone. After Torrey caught the 2-point conversion, Hayti's lead was cut to 33-14.
Hayti's next drive went five plays in before Farr fired a low-lying, incomplete pass to his left that was called a lateral. Ryan Priggel fell on the fumble on Portageville's 31. Kellams finished the 8-play, 2:13 drive with an 11-yard strike to Hunter Gates with 1:20 left in the third.
After trimming Hayti's lead to 33-21, Farr had the ball knocked out of his hands on Hayti's first play. The ball was recovered by Justin Batley at Hayti's 23.
A 15-yard, 3rd down reception by Gates extended the drive until Kellams found Torrey on a slant for a 5-yard touchdown pass at the 11:48 mark in the fourth quarter.
Kellams' fourth touchdown pass made it a one-score game, 33-27.
"We got off to a hot start, moving the ball, we were firing off the ball and looked energetic," Cruce said. "I'm not sure what happened in the second half. I'm going to have to watch a lot of film on that. It just looked like they got too comfortable. Something happened in the second half and I'm going to have to identify that very quickly, because we can't have that."
Hayti ended its fifth drive with a punt after squandering its first four in the second half with four turnovers. With the momentum clearly on Portageville's side, the Bulldogs picked up a first down, but lost 15 yards, including an 8-yard sack, to force a Portageville punt that ended up on Portageville's 35.
Hayti again fumbled at the 32-yard line. This time it was Elijah Jones, who rushed for 21 yards and a first quarter touchdown run.
"I'll be honest, I'm very disappointed in some of our seniors," Cruce said. "They were turning the ball over, lack of leadership, looking out of shape and looked like they didn't put everything into conditioning this week. Our seniors have to step up. Some of our younger guys had to step up and bail us out."
Though Hayti's turnovers gave Portageville plenty of chances, the Bulldogs had two opportunities with just under seven minutes left to either tie or take the lead.
One of Portageville's final drives started at their own 32 with 6:28 left. After five plays, the drive stalled after a 6-yard pass to Torrey was one yard shy of converting a first down.
Torrey, playing defensive back, broke up a 4th and 4 pass to once again give Portageville the ball with 2:16 left on their own 38.
Portageville tried a little trickery during its last drive by tossing a lateral to Torrey, who overthrowed a pass to Gates.
Kellams went to Torrey on 4th and 4 with a deep pass to the left side. Torrey got his right hand on the ball but couldn't come up with the catch.
"The double pass we had, Ian overthrows Hunter by maybe three yards," Bullock said. "We run, on the fourth down play, we could've went with something shorter and maybe picked up a first down, but if I'm going to go down I'm going down in a blaze. I can be the idiot. The ball was in his hands and if Ian catches that, he turns upfield and it's a touchdown. It was just one of those things that it wasn't meant for No. 10 to hold on to it."
Hayti's Dayon Moore was assigned to Torrey who held Portageville's top receiver to five catches for 68 yards and forced Torrey into a difficult position to haul in the final throw.
"We told Dayon to just stay close to him and he didn't have to necessarily make an incredible play, but just make it a difficult catch," Cruce said. "If he makes it a difficult catch then he's done his job and that's what he did. He played inside and forced (Torrey) to turn his body and try and make an over the shoulder catch. He did his job tonight."
Hayti took over on Portageville's 44-yard line with 1:29 remaining. Farr rushed for 19 yards and a first down on Hayti's second play of the drive to seal the game.
"You got to give a lot of credit to Hayti. They have a lot of good athletes," said Bullock. "They've jumped out on a lot of other teams this year and it three of them, everybody was ready to roll over. Luckily tonight there was a team that said, 'You know, you had a great first half but we're going to win the second one.'"
Hayti's offense stalled for much of the second half. They finished the first two quarters with 182 of their 248 yards of total offense and scored all of its 33 points in the first half.
"We feel like we can score on anybody and nobody can stop us. That's our mentality," Farr said. "When we get to rolling, we're a tough team. But we let this game come back to us instead of snatching this game from our opponent. We can fix that. It's mental."
On the other side, Portageville was held to 69 first-half yards before finishing with 165 total.
"Last week we talked a lot about heart and tonight they showed it," Bullock said. "We had a few guys go down and had a lot of guys playing beat up. They just wanted to play and they set aside everything else and just played football. Dadgummit, that's why we do this. Sometimes I wonder why I do this, but tonight I know why I do this. I love them to death. I'm so appreciative of what they did."
Hayti 21 12 0 0 -- 33
Portageville 6 0 15 6 -- 27
First quarter
H -- Maurice Farr 2 run (Farr run), 8:34
H -- Elijah Jones 16 run (run failed), 7:08
H -- Jamal Brooks 3 run (Jimmy Ramadani kick), 3:38
P -- Jon Garrett Kellams 30 pass to Hunter Gates (pass failed), 2:03
Second quarter
H -- Maurice Farr 46 pass to Dayon Moore (run failed), 9:03
H -- Maurice Farr 16 pass to Jamerial Cody (run failed), 1:15
Third quarter
P -- Jon Garrett Kellams 9 pass to Ian Torrey (Kellams to Torrey), 6:47
P -- Jon Garrett Kellams 11 pass to Hunter Gates (Nicholes Allred kick), 1:20
Fourth quarter
P -- Jon Garrett Kellams 5 pass to Ian Torrey (kick failed), 11:49
TEAM STATISTICS
H P
First downs 7 8
Total yards 248 165
Rushes-yards 37-136 21-(-16)
Passing yards 112 181
Comp.-Att.-Int. 8-15-1 20-42-1
Fumbles-lost 5-4 2-1
Penalties-yards 12-91 8-54
Turnovers 5 2
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing -- Hayti, Elijah Jones 6-21, Maurice Farr 14-30, Jamal Brooks 11-29, Devante Robinson 6-56. Portageville, Daniel McCray 15-22, Jon Garrett Kellams 7-(-10), Team 1-(-28).
Passing -- Hayti, Maurice Farr 8-15-1 112. Portageville, Jon Garrett Kellams 20-42-1 181, Ian Torrey 0-1-0 0.
Receiving -- Hayti, Dayon Moore 4-54, Daustin Thomas 1-12, Jamerial Cody 2-40, Reginald Ford 1-6. Portageville, Ian Torrey 5-68, Daniel McCray 7-18, Hunter Gates 6-80, Ryan Priggel 1-0, Tyler Daugherty 1-15.
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