By Kyle Parmley
PINSON – Looking back on Pinson Valley’s 8-0 victory over Huffman last Friday night, a single painted line on each end of the field at Willie Adams Stadium had as big an impact on the game as any other factor.
The goal line.
Fast forward in the game to the third quarter, with the Indians clinging to a 6-0 edge. A Rhasheed Wilson interception – one of two from him in the period – set Pinson Valley up with great field position at the Huffman 30-yard-line.
On the first play of the drive, lefty quarterback Jackie Matthews threw across his body to the right sideline, where the long arms of Liallen Dailey hauled in a pass to set his team up with 1st-down-and-goal from the ten.
Running back Khymel Chaverst gained seven yards. Then he lost a yard. On third down from the four, Chaverst burst through the offensive line and got close to the goal line. Both line judges raced in and had trouble finding the stocky back, and marked him down at the one-yard-line.
The fourth down call was a simple one. Halfback dive. Smash mouth football. The Indians had confidence in their ability to gain the final yard to score the touchdown and go up two possessions.
Everything went according to plan. Chaverst took the handoff and slammed into the scrum of offensive and defensive linemen. He wiggled through the mass of bodies and dove into the end zone. Over half of his body was stretched out in the end zone.
The final step in a touchdown equation is one or both of the line judges raising his hands straight into the air to signal the score. But for whatever reason, that never happened. They raced in towards the pile of players centered near the goal line. They never saw Chaverst, assuming he was in the middle of it somewhere. After a brief discussion, no touchdown was ruled, and the Indians turned the ball over on downs to Huffman.
Pinson Valley recouped some of their losses on the very next play, however, as Huffman called a stretch play to the right. Demetrius Davis took the handoff and was immediately plowed into by Wilson, who used his strength to drive Davis all the way out of the back of the end zone for a safety, making the score 8-0.
The Indians could not breathe easy just yet, since it was still a one-possession game due to a missed extra point following their lone touchdown in the second quarter.
Huffman forced a three-and-out and a punt from the Indians, and took the ball back with 90 yards ahead of them to hopefully tie the game. Most of those yards were accumulated on a pair of pass plays from Nyre Holden to Derontavious Travis (31 and 21 yards) to get the Vikings down near the notable goal line again, this time two yards away from it.
The Vikings attempted to pound it in the end zone with their big running back Jacoby Johnson. On first down, he ran up the middle and was stuffed for no gain. The play was repeated on second down, and he was once again stopped in his tracks.
Demetrius Davis came into the game on third down and took the direct snap out of the Wildcat formation. He had no more luck than Johnson, and was stopped once again for no gain.
It was the end of the third quarter, and the teams swapped ends of the field. The swap did Huffman no good. Davis ran the same play out of the backfield and was stuck once again to give Pinson Valley the goal line stand to preserve the lead and the shutout.
The Indians controlled play in the final quarter, and the game finished with the same score line. They are off this week and resume play next Friday night.