By Will Heath, for the Tribune
LEEDS — According to Taylon Gaiter, Friday night’s epic first-round matchup turned on a simple request.
Tied at 28 with 6th-ranked Guntersville and facing 3rd down at their own 32 with 28 seconds left, Leeds called its final timeout. In the huddle, Gaiter says, he asked for the football.
“I said, ‘Coach I want it,’” Gaiter said after the game.
And so, in a game the 9th-ranked Green Wave had dominated on the ground, senior quarterback Conner Nelson dropped back and lofted a pass down the middle of the field to his streaking wide receiver.
“That safety just shot down, and I knew Taylon was open on that post route,” Nelson said. “I just threw it and I had faith in him.”
Gaiter never broke stride. The 68-yard touchdown sent Leeds (9-2) to the second round of the AHSAA 5A playoffs in epic fashion, with a 35-28 victory. They’ll travel to face Fairview next Friday.
“We get another Monday,” Nelson said on the field in between handshakes from fans. “We get another Monday.”
That earned Monday is in no small part due to Nelson’s efforts. Facing a Guntersville team that Jerry Hood called the third-highest scoring offense in Class 5A, Nelson accounted for 347 of the Green Wave’s 427 yards of offense. He ran for 186 and four TDs, threw for 153 and the game-winning score, caught one pass at the receiver spot and played much of the game at safety.
“They (Guntersville) got a bunch of athletes,” Nelson said. “I just feel like down here we’re way more physical and we just played every snap, every second of the game, just as hard as we can.”
That effort was necessary to counter the Wildcats (9-2), who rolled up 337 yards of offense themselves. Guntersville QB Street Smith threw for 141 yards and ran for 64, account for all 28 of the visiting team’s points.
“He (Smith) played so hard,” Guntersville head coach Lance Reese said. “I thought my guys fought to the very end.”
The Wildcats opened the game with a lightning-fast drive, scoring on the fourth play from scrimmage on a 31-yard pass from Smith to Dadrien Waller. After Nelson’s first TD tied the game in the second quarter, Smith needed 5 snaps to score again, this time on a 1-yard sneak.
Nelson answered that with a 12-yard TD run, and the Green Wave took the lead on a 3-yard Nelson run in the third quarter following a Miles Jones interception.
Smith answered with a 28-yard scramble for a TD.
“That team is unbelievable, from Guntersville,” Leeds head coach Jerry Hood said. “They played awesome.”
After Nelson scored his fourth TD — a 58-yard run in the fourth quarter — Smith led the Wildcats on a 65-yard drive to knot things up again. The QB snuck in for a 1-yard TD, then found Waller for a 2-point conversion that tied the game with 2:01 remaining.
Hood said the final TD pass was “better than playing for overtime.”
“There was nothing negative about it,” he said. “Just take a shot.”
Hood and the Green Wave also endured a scary moment just before Guntersville scored to tie the game, as defensive back Miles Ashford left the game on a stretcher following a collision. Hood said Ashford was moving and talking on the field before paramedics strapped him to the gurney.
“He got a stinger somewhere around his neck,” he said. “It was precautionary.”
Leeds now prepares to face Fairview, the Green Wave’s fifth straight season playing in the second round of the playoffs.
“What we do understand, is, you get in this game, let it hang out,” Hood said. “Because if not, your season’s over, right?”
