Luverne outlasts Montgomery Academy in slugfest

Luverne’s Jayden Laird breaks loose for a score in the Tigers’ win over MA on Friday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

It looked for a while like the team that had the ball last would win Montgomery Academy’s matchup with Luverne on Friday night at McLemore Field.

Then, Montgomery Academy had two crucial turnovers that led to points by the Tigers and one of the best teams in Class 2A was on its way to a 48-45 victory over one of the best in 3A.

But while the turnovers proved to be the difference in the game, it wasn’t the end of the game. Montgomery Academy scored on its next possession, recovered an onside kick and scored again to trim the deficit to a field goal, then held the Tigers on downs for one last shot that ended with an incomplete pass in the end zone.

“We know that our offense can score points, we know their offense can score points,” Montgomery Academy coach Ethan McBride said. “We know that our defense has the capability to stop people from scoring points, we know their defense has the capability to stop people from scoring points. Hats off to them. They executed in big moments when they needed to, we had some stumbles along the way. But I was incredibly proud of the way that we persevered. You’re down 18 (points) with 10 minutes left and you get it all the way back to be a game.

“We knew that we needed to be clean with the ball and we knew that we needed to force some (turnovers). That’s a testament to them for not doing that. They did a great job all night protecting the football.”

 Luverne coach Bobby Hudson lost to the Eagles 36-8 last year and made no secret of the fact that Friday’s non-region game was a little more important than most since the Tigers are one of only two teams in 2A Region 3 with a winning record.

“We were up on them last year at halftime and they came out and whipped us in the second half,” Hudson said. “I told our kids (on Friday night) at halftime, we’re down again when we should have scored (on the opening possession). No one has stopped us all year. We’ve punted once earlier in the season and we punted once tonight. They accepted the challenge. This is probably our only true test in the regular season.”

In a game that featured 93 points and nearly 1,000 yards of offense, the Eagles’ turnovers left a defense battered and unable to stop the Luverne offense and trailing 48-30 with 10 minutes left. Montgomery Academy would score in just three plays, using a 36-yard pass from Reid McBride to Jarrett Friendly to set up David Whisenhunt’s 29-yard reception down the sideline to answer the Tigers in 74 seconds.

After McBride threw to Knox Morrison for the two-point conversion, the Eagles executed a perfect onside kick with Knox Wingate kicking the ball and grabbing it after it had traveled 10 yards. Four plays later, the Eagles were at the Luverne 27 and McBride threw to Braden Gordon for 23 yards and then Gordon ran the final four yards to make it 48-45 with 7:25 remaining.

Should Montgomery Academy try for another onside kick or kick it deep and trust a defense that had already allowed more than 400 yards of offense?

“You get an onside on them, now you know it’s going to be their ‘hands’ team,” McBride said. “So now you pin them deep and get good field position. We did that. We had a fourth down earlier that we needed to get the stop at. You get the stop there, you’ve got three minutes left as opposed to 55 seconds.”

After two plays, the Eagles were in good shape with Luverne facing third down and seven, but Montgomery Academy had 12 men on the field and the five-yard penalty helped the Tigers convert. Four plays later, with 3:02 remaining, Elliott Harris took a pitch at left end on fourth and two and ran nine yards. 

The Eagles would eventually hold, stopping Harris a yard short on a fourth-and-three run at the MA 37, but by then Montgomery Academy was out of timeouts and had just 55.9 seconds remaining.

McBride completed a pass to Gordon and two more to Friendly, but a holding penalty wiped out a 17-yard gain, forcing McBride to throw the ball up for grabs in the end zone as time expired.

“They weren’t using the clock as much, but eventually it ran out,” Hudson said. “Coach (McBride) has a hell of a team and their defense is extremely good. I think us having a few different packages caused them to sell out, which opened up those wide-open passes.”

Before the stop in the final minute, Luverne had only been stopped once on fourth down, that coming on the Tigers’ first possession when an illegal procedure penalty pushed the Tigers back to the MA 7-yard line and Montgomery Academy’s William Marks broke up a pass for Harris.

Luverne was 3 of 5 on fourth down, using a physical offense in short-yardage situations that led to explosive plays on touchdown runs of 42 yards by Jayden Laird, 78 yards by Tavion Rainey, 43 yards and 20 yards by Harris and a pair of touchdown passes by Larry Smith to wide-open receivers.

“They’ve got a high level of physicality and they did a good job of getting numbers to the ball and we didn’t do a good job of matching that,” McBride said. “Any time you’ve got that and you’ve got playmakers like they’ve got, once they get into the open field, they’re gone. The solution is we’ve got to execute at a higher level.”

Hudson said his decision to go for it on fourth down was a matter of survival. Montgomery Academy’s Red McBride had 130 yards on 10 carries, including an 81-yard touchdown run, and completed 17 of 23 passes for 310 yards, throwing eight times to Friendly for 152 yards and seven times to Gordon for 119 yards.  

“We’ve been very solid on defense, basically only giving up one touchdown all season,” he said. “But we knew they had those playmakers and it was kind of pick your poison -- help the guys on the outside (with coverage) and when we helped, they would run the ball.

“Our defense needed a stop because they hadn’t been stopping them, so it was sort of our offense, me taking a few chances on fourth down, to keep our defense off the field. In big games, only a few plays matter -- the turnovers and getting some of those first downs on fourth down milked the clock and kept us off the field.”

Ultimately, the fourth-down conversions and the Tigers’ impressive 6-of-6 on two-point conversion runs were too much for Montgomery Academy to handle. But a bigger factor was a 32-30 deficit that turned into an 18-point hole in less than three minutes after the Eagles fumbled a kickoff return and a McBride pass that was batted in the air turned into a Laird interception.

“I told my kids it was going to come down to turnovers,” Hudson said. “I don’t think we turned the ball over. The number one stat in wins and losses is turnovers.”