Juan Bullard was tired Friday night, but the job wasn't done.
The East Hamilton quarterback-slash-running back-slash-defender-slash — you get the point — had just accounted for all of the Hurricanes' 79 yards on a touchdown drive that cut visiting Upperman's lead to a point with 58.8 seconds remaining in a second-round game in the Class 4A state playoffs. The senior star looked over to the sideline, exhausted, just to see head coach Grant Reynolds holding up two fingers, signaling to go for the 2-point conversion and the win.
The play was going to go through Bullard, of course, and he was able to scoot 3 yards around the right end to give the Hurricanes the winning points in a 43-42 shootout victory that put the program in the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2013.
Next week the Hurricanes (9-3) will host Region 3 rival Red Bank (10-2), which beat Stone Memorial 21-6 to advance. East Hamilton defeated Red Bank 14-0 on Oct. 21.
"I knew I just had to suck it up," said Bullard, who had 197 yards passing and 88 rushing and five combined scores. "The defense gave us a stop, and they told us to go score. We executed on the plan; we went down, scored and ran all the time off the clock."
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night's Chattanooga-area high school football games)
It was good they did, because for the second straight week, the Hurricanes were outgained by an opponent that had a dominant rushing attack but struggled in the passing game.
Upperman (9-3), led by the two-headed monster of running back Terrance Dedmon and quarterback Jonathon Rushing, ran for 426 yards, but with less than a minute remaining, the Bees were forced to throw. Rushing threw three incomplete passes — one was nearly intercepted by Devon Harolson — before Zachariah Laboo sacked him on fourth down, ending the game.
The "stop" Bullard was referring to was on a 2-point conversion attempt by the Bees, which kept the score at 42-35 and gave the Hurricanes the chance to score and win.
East Hamilton finished with 315 yards of offense, but for the second straight week it got points from somewhere other than the offense. Last week it was a fumble recovery by Laboo; this week it was a 92-yard kickoff return by Kireese Willis just before halftime.
David Cole also had a big game with 125 yards on eight catches, including two touchdowns.
"We've got a lot of playmakers, and we spread them out all over the field," Reynolds said. "If the ball gets in one of those (player's) hands like it did Kireese tonight, and David Cole, and Juan and some of our other players, they're going to make plays, and that's the luxury of having those guys and all those kids work hard in practice. They earn everything they get.
"This is a big win for our kids and our coaches. I'm very proud of them."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.