The longest run of the day by a Tyner Academy ball carrier did not count in the game's statistics, but it was one the Rams community had waited 25 years to see.
Moments after Tyner won the school's first football state championship in a quarter-century, senior Trae Ruffin took the Class 2A BlueCross Bowl's gold ball trophy and sprinted from midfield toward Finley Stadium's visitors bleachers with his teammates chasing behind.
Ruffin's victory lap in front of an impressively large section of Rams supporters ended 60 yards from where it began, near the corner of one end zone with the entire team circling around the hardware to celebrate what they had just accomplished.
"I didn't know I was going to do that until they handed us the trophy, then I just knew that we had to take it and run it over to our people to let them see what we did," said Ruffin, who had four catches for 57 yards and two touchdowns — his team's first score and the one that put the Rams ahead for the first time.
"It really didn't sink in, what we had done, until I touched that gold ball. I was up until 5 o'clock in the morning just thinking about this. I was too excited to sleep. We've been dreaming about this for so long, working hard every day. From early morning workouts to practicing after dark, our whole team deserves this because we really went out and did it."
Tyner's defense — which had been the stingiest in 2A all season, allowing an average of just seven points per game — struggled at times against a balanced and physical Riverside offense that became only the fourth opponent all season to score more than seven on the Rams.
Tyner trailed 15-0 after the first quarter and didn't take its first lead until the opening drive of the second half, when Josh Jackson connected with Ruffin on a 21-yard touchdown toss.
A 17-yard scoring run by Markel McKinley — the game's MVP who finished with 114 rushing yards — extended Tyner's lead to eight, but after the Panthers drove 81 yards in nine plays to pull within two points on a short touchdown run with 40 seconds remaining, the game's outcome — and state championship dreams — weighed on the shoulders of Tyner's defense.
Before the game, during Rams assistant Twon McClain's emotional pep talk, he implored the team to "Leave your legacy on that field tonight. Hit everything that moves!"
After a Riverside timeout to decide which play to try on its 2-point conversion attempt, the tandem of Tyner defenders Zashun Hubbard and Rayshaun Hinton did exactly what their coach had asked by combining to stop receiver William Wallace from reaching the end zone.
"We thought they would run either their big back (225-pound junior Desmond Thomas, who gained 89 yards on 25 carries) or the little jet sweep they'd had success with earlier," Rams coach Scott Chandler said. "When they came out in the spread, I thought we would be all right because we see our offense all the time during our 2-point play period, and they're always running that pick route from the spread, so we knew what to expect.
"I told our guys during the timeout: 'Whatever you've got in the tank, whatever you've got left, you better bring it because we've got one play to win the state championship.'"
Once Ruffin had passed off the gold ball hardware for his teammates to share, Hubbard and Hinton each took their turn hoisting the trophy into the night air before reliving the decisive defensive stand.
"I saw the quarterback roll my way and knew if he threw the ball, I had to make the play," Hubbard said. "Once I saw the ball in the air, I knew if I just attacked (Wallace) and made him stand up, then everybody else would rally around and help get him down. That's what happened. Rayshaun came in and helped finish it off.
"Now we get to be in the conversation with the great teams. Now we're up there with the best Tyner teams ever."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.