CLEVELAND, Tenn. – There may never be another time when a high school football coach will celebrate a 42-yard loss by his quarterback.
For Walker Valley’s Drew Akins, Friday night was an exception.
Only a handful of people knew what was going on as Mustangs quarterback Tucker Pope took a fourth-down snap and took off running backward toward – seemingly – the wrong end zone late in the fourth quarter.
Akins and his staff were in that handful, though, and when Pope fell down as the clock ticked under 40 seconds remaining in the game against Powell in the first round of the TSSAA Class 5A playoffs, the home team’s coach started jumping up and down in celebration. He knew that the Panthers, with no timeouts remaining, couldn’t stop the clock with the Mustangs ahead 21-16, having taken the lead for good in the final 10 minutes.
“I’m proud of our coaching staff for putting that (idea) in my ear,” Akins said after celebrating with both the team and the band after closing out the win. “It was also good execution by Tucker in making it happen.”