IT'S OVER!: Park Crossing takes care of 22-game losing streak but not without bizzare moments

First-year coach LA O’Neal and the Park Crossing Thunderbirds ended three years of frustration with a victory over Woodlawn on Friday. (Photo Courtesy of London O’Neal)

By GRAHAM DUNN

The 22-game losing streak for the Park Crossing Thunderbirds ended on Friday night with a 21-8 victory over Woodlawn in Birmingham.

But in the early stages of the season opener, there was an eerie feeling that the bad fortunes were about to strike again.

The streak seemed to be destined to reach 23 after a couple of odd officiating calls at the end the first half.

“They were disappointed. They were mad. It seemed to get their attention,” said new Park Crossing coach L.A. O’Neal regarding the unusual situation at the end of the second quarter when home standing Woodlawn was awarded a timeout after Park Crossing had kick a field goal.

“There really wasn’t much of an explanation other than the (Woodlawn) coaches were complaining,” O’Neal said. “But they got them to change a call.”

Nearing the end of the half, the Thunderbirds were in position to take the lead to the locker room with a short field goal - and for a brief moment they had a 10-8 advantage.

After a Park Crossing time out to set up the field goal try, Tony Turner converted from 17 yards out with just a few seconds remaining. But the Colonels’ coaching staff protested, stating they were not aware of the time out and should have been allowed to gather the team on the sideline.

The officials agreed, declaring the timeout was not implemented correctly, wiping out the made field goal.

All of this happened after the Thunderbirds had lined up to kick off.

Park Crossing missed the second attempt, leaving the T’Birds trailing 8-7 at the break.

For a program that felt snake bit for the last three seasons, it was deja vu all over again.

“Just all the emotional times and the thoughts of program the being cursed, it had to be going through their minds again,” O’Neal said. “I never dealt with that before. So this was new to me.”

This all happened after Woodlawn took the lead on a tipped pass that ended up in the hands of receiver Tyurrie Matthews, who scored to give the Colonels the lead in the first quarter.

O’Neal apparently gave the correct halftime speech and his team responded with a solid second half that was led by quarterback Khristian Perryman, who passed for 283 yards and three touchdowns on 17-of-19 attempts.

It gave Park Crossing their first victory since Sept. 28, 2023, when it defeated Selma, 6-0 at Cramton Bowl.

“I told them you played possibly the worst half of football and you’re still only down one point,” O’Neal said. “We just had to settle down and play our game. We went out and played the type of football I knew they were capable.”

O’Neal was encouraged in the attitude his team had in the second half.

“They seemed determined,” he said. “This didn’t look like a group of players who had dealt with such disappointment.

“For the coaches, it was a lot of relief to get that ‘monkey off their backs.’ For the players, it was excitement, and for seniors, they were elated because they said they had never won a varsity game before. So, just to see them happy was great… but as a coach, I'm looking at all the things that we did wrong and what we’ve got to correct before we even get on the bus. But for them have their moment of excitement and and let the parents and fans have a chance to celebrate, it meant so much to so many.”

Kyle Bell and Jaylen Sankey scored the two touchdowns in the second half that gave the T’Birds the margin of victory. O’Neal said the defense played so well at times, “it looked like there were 13 players on the field.”

Park Crossing forced four turnovers, two interceptions and two fumble recoveries and held Woodlawn to negative yardage for the game.

“We’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to get cleaned up such as a couple of false starts, a couple holding penalties and a couple offsides,” O’Neal said. “We get that cleaned up going into next week we will be in pretty good shape.”

Park Crossing will play its first home game of the season next Friday against Murphy.