BENTON, Tenn. — Howard quarterback Michael Bryant gave his best performance of the year, and he and the sixth-ranked Hustlin’ Tigers held off a relentless Polk County comeback to upend the fifth-ranked Wildcats 28-26 in Region 3-3A football Friday night.

“I had an OK game. The key was the offensive line and the pass protection,” Bryant said.

But Tigers lines did their share, but Bryant took advantage, completing 14 of 21 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown while rushing for another. He made some key completions, including a third-and-15 on the Tigers’ opening drive that covered 77 yards and ended with the first of two short scoring runs by Eric McCullough.

“He played well. He read the defense and he knew what was open and where to throw it. He didn’t try to force anything,” said diminutive Tigers receiver Jahron Reynolds, who had eight catches for 150 yards and a touchdown.

Howard, and in particular Bryant, showed a lot of patience in waiting for plays to develop. The Tigers had averaged 11 passes entering Friday’s game and made the most of Bryant’s reads and accuracy.

“Without a doubt, Michael stepped up tonight,” fourth-year Howard coach Alvin Tarver said. “I don’t know that we stepped out of character, but this is the most balanced team we’ve had since I’ve been at Howard. And ‘Quick’ (Reynolds) has been our leader all year. He is a big-play receiver.”

The passing game had to be on because Polk’s defenders held the Tigers to 35 net yards on 31 runs.

“I knew they had a consistent team that didn’t make a lot of mistakes,” Tarver said.

Being on the road, he also felt it was important to get ahead early and try to take the overflow home crowd out of the game.

The Tigers did that, winning the toss and electing to receive and then marching 77 yards — taking almost six minutes off the block — for a 7-0 lead. They went ahead 14-0 before Polk countered on Jared Allen’s 6-yard pass to James Bussey with 49 seconds left in the half.

It appeared that Polk would take momentum into the locker room, but no one counted on Marcus Shropshire returning the kickoff 63 yards to the Polk 27. The Tigers then converted with 0:02 left in the half on Bryant’s 26-yard pass to Reynolds.

Polk closed the gap again when Luke Phillips fell on a teammate’s fumble with 1:34 left in the third quarter and Tyler Lee caught a 26-yard pass from Allen. However, having missed the PAT following Phillips’ score, they had to go for two and Lee slipped when he tried to turn the corner with 0:51 left. Howard then successfully covered the Wildcats’ onside kick.

It is the second year in a row that the outcome came down to extra points. Howard ran for two two-point conversions in 2007, while Polk missed one and the Tigers won 16-14.

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