The Soddy-Daisy Trojans fended off the host Signal Mountain Eagles in an offensive slugfest Friday night, winning 43-42 on a gutsy 2-point conversion in overtime.
"The whole second half we were having a hard time stopping them. We knew if we got in a back-and-forth battle at the end, they had a chance to come ahead," Trojans coach Justin Barnes said, wiping sweat from his brow as he explained the decision to go for two points and the win.
"We saw what we wanted from them on defense and ran our best route we throw."
The teams took turns trading blows in the first half. Trojans running back Hayden Maynor capped off an 11-play, 68-yard drive with a tough run up the gut to give Soddy-Daisy a quick 7-0 lead. Signal Mountain answered with wingback Terrance Russell making a 13-yard jet-sweep dash to the right corner of the end zone.
Soddy-Daisy quarterback Isaac Barnes connected with receiver KeSean Eubanks on the visitors' next possession for a 10-yard touchdown. After a quick four-and-out for the Eagles offense, the Trojans seemed in good position to expand their lead. However, Signal Mountain linebacker Rod Hutcherson picked off a Barnes pass to give the Eagles a short field. Four plays later, Eagles quarterback Jack Wilson found Russell on a 10-yard pass to bring the score to 14-14 going into halftime.
Coming out of halftime, Soddy-Daisy scored quickly twice - Barnes connecting with his go-to receiver Eubanks on both touchdowns - to go ahead 28-14. Signal Mountain replied with three consecutive touchdowns but with a 35-28 lead failed on a fourth-down conversion on its own side of the field with just over a minute left in regulation.
With 44 seconds left, Barnes connected with Eubanks yet again to take the game into overtime. Then Barnes passed to Eubanks on both the overtime touchdown and winning 2-point conversion.
"It was a really good ballgame tonight. It's been that way the past couple of years between us," Eagles coach Josh Roberts said. "Both teams played well enough to win, and it came down to those few key plays at the end that went their way."
"I give Signal a ton of credit for a great game plan," Barnes said. "We played sloppy at times, and they did some things to spread us out in the second half to catch up. The game was a real chess match."
Contact Justin Dempsey at sports@timesfreepress.com.