SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. - It was quite a homecoming for Wes Stone, the longtime South Pittsburg assistant coach who resigned his position and moved to Boyd-Buchanan and has since become the Buccaneers' defensive coordinator.
It was fitting, therefore, that his defense twice managed fourth-down stops inside their own 5-yard line, stops that were followed by 94-yard scoring drives in an improbable 28-22 rally past the host Pirates.
"I was watching the defense. If [South Pittsburg] gets that score, it's a two-possession game," Bucs quarterback Cooper Hodge said. "When the defense came through, we had no doubts we could drive down there and get a score."
Hodge was one of numerous heroes for the Bucs, throwing touchdown passes to Jack Keebler and Damaris Macon and then getting a TD run to pull his team back within two points before scoring the winner with 2:40 left in the final period.
South Pittsburg was driving toward the win when Macon pounced on a fumble, allowing the Bucs to run out the clock and preserve the victory.
"We grew up a lot in that fourth quarter," Boyd-Buchanan head coach Grant Reynolds said after his team won its second straight game and continued its drive to overcome a 0-5 start. "The guys came in here and fought and fought and fought in a place where wins for the visitors don't come often or easily. But a 94-yard drive to win a football game -- that's something to be proud of. The guys were relentless."
Boyd-Buchanan jumped to a 7-0 lead on Hodge's 36-yard pass to Keebler and maintained the lead when South Pittsburg, after a 1-yard Kitt Grider run, missed the extra point. The Bucs came back on their second offensive possession and extended their lead on a 56-yard pass to Macon.
Following an interception to quell a Boyd-Buchanan drive deep in their own territory, the Pirates went on their own 90-yard drive with Grider finishing it off with a 19-yard pass to Drew Daniels. They tied it on Grider's two-point run.
South Pittsburg then took the lead 22-14 with 2:01 left in the third period on a 4-yard run by Joseph Lilly and his two-point conversion.
Hodge got the Bucs within two with a 5-yard run barely a minute later and then got the winner with 2:10 left in the game.
The Bucs' defensive effort and subsequent rally overshadowed a superhuman performance by South Pittsburg running back Chase Blevins, who had a career-high 28 carries for 173 yards.
The team presented the game ball to Stone, who still lives about a mile from South Pittsburgh High.
"I've had a lot of great memories on this field," he said. "To go against those guys was a lot of stress. To have your backs to the wall knowing you couldn't give up a score and then didn't -- that's great defense."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.