For all practical purposes, the football game was over.
The combination of the deficit and the time remaining meant there was no way Central High School could rally for a win. But it was during the closing minutes of a double-digit loss last year - a short span most people would consider meaningless - that first-year Purple Pounders coach Cortney Braswell believed he found the foundation on which he could build his program.
Despite the hopelessness of the situation, exhausted middle linebacker Vincent McColley kept picking himself up off the cold turf and hustling to the football before each new snap. He refused to come off the field until the final seconds had slipped off the clock.
"I knew right then that the game was important to Vincent," Braswell said. "We weren't coming back and winning that game, but he just kept coming, kept making plays. I knew then that we had somebody who could help us turn this program around and build something special."
The year before Braswell took over, it would have been impossible to imagine McColley setting the example of leadership at Central. That's because he was kicked off the team for fighting midway through the 2015 schedule as a sophomore, with the incident part of a miserable winless season that led to Braswell's hiring.
"I wasn't just immature, I was very immature," McColley admitted. "I had a bad attitude, and a lot of that was because of some of the people I was running around with. I missed football not just every week at games, but every day not getting to even practice or be a part of the team.
"Right after he took over, Coach called me into his office and told me point blank that I needed to separate myself from some of my friends because he knew they were bad news and didn't have the future that I could have. Most of the time when he says something it's not what I want to hear but what I need to hear, and once I realized he was right and I followed his advice, things started turning around for me."
The year away from the game and Braswell's matter-of-fact approach with the advice he gives his players was just the combination McColley needed to mature and begin setting new goals for himself. Faculty members said there was a noticeable difference that began last year in the way McColley approached classwork and even how he carried himself in the halls at school.
He also gave coaches an early glimpse of how determined he was to become someone they could depend on just three games into last season. Playing with a bruised knee, he limped around but made enough stops on a late drive by Livingston Academy to help Central hold on for a five-point win that snapped the program's 15-game losing streak that dated back to 2014.
"I wanted to prove that I was a guy the team could depend on. I don't want to ever come out of a game, no matter what the score is or if I'm a little banged up," McColley said. "I decided I didn't want to be like some of the guys I knew, who were getting in trouble or kicked out of school for doing stupid stuff. I wanted to do something with my life, and for me it starts with football.
"I want to go to college and keep playing for as long as I can. Once I realized how much Coach actually cares about me, my whole attitude changed, and I feel a lot better about my future and where the program is headed. He'll call me at home or even sometimes if I'm at work just to check up and see how I'm doing. I don't want to disappoint him."
Now the 5-foot-10, 205-pound senior is the Pounders' unquestioned leader. He led the defense with 99 total tackles a season ago and was all over the field in last week's opener, finishing with nine tackles - two for lost yardage - in an impressive two-score win over Class 5A's Walker Valley.
"There's always one player on every team each year that can set you apart. If they play well, the team plays well," Braswell said. "Vincent is our guy. We don't have a backup for him. He's our middle linebacker every snap. Even during practice, he gets every rep.
"I didn't know when we started out last year that he would become that guy, but now he's one of the best leaders I've been around. It's amazing to see how he's changed. During one of our first meetings, I told him that he could be a heck of a player for us, but that I wanted him to change for himself, because I knew if he stayed with football it could help him become the person he wanted to be.
"Now he's a better student, a better employee and a better teammate, and eventually I believe he'll be a better husband and father because of the changes he's made. And that, no matter what else he does on the field, is a really big win."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.