Friday night’s matchup between East Lake and Countryside, two unbeaten teams sharing a spot atop the 7A-9 standings, had all the makings of a classic late-season district battle.
But even the most plugged-in of pundits couldn’t have predicted what would take place at the Eagles’ Nest.
The Cougars, who got whipped by East Lake, 47-3, last season, held the high-powered East Lake offense to just one touchdown, but it still wasn’t enough to win, as the Eagles defense forced three turnovers and came up with a late stand on Countryside’s final drive to earn a hard fought 10-8 victory.
“First of all it’s a win, another one in the district, which is huge,” East Lake head coach Bob Hudson said afterwards. “And we haven’t really had one of those ‘fights’ yet, so that’s huge.”
“It makes them believe in us when we say we’ve got to do one more gasser, we’ve got to do one more thing, because there are going to be times where we’ve got to go one more play.”
Friday night was definitely one of those times, because it took everything East Lake (7-0, 3-0) had to hold off a resilient Countryside squad.
For a team that has won 22 regular season games and had seen a running clock associated with a blowout used in 14 of its last 16 contests, the fact that the Eagles had scored only three points just minutes before halftime was a surprise.
But after tying the game at three on a 31-yard field goal by Martin Turkowski with 2:49 to play in the half, Countryside (6-1, 2-1) immediately surrendered the lead, as East Lake marched 71 yards in six plays, capping the drive with a 21-yard touchdown pass from Jake Hudson to George Campbell to make it 10-3 eagles at the half.
Although the Eagles did an effective job of bottling up dynamic Cougar running back Dante Satcher all night (21 carries, 51 yards), Countryside managed to shave the margin of East Lake’s lead, as their defense did not allow the Eagles to score in the second half.
Another field goal by Turkowski, this one a 37-yarder, cut the Cougars’ deficit to 10-6 with just over two minutes left to play in the third, and when Countryside got a safety by sacking Hudson (8-18, 126 yds, TD) in the end zone near the start of the fourth quarter, the Eagles’ lead was a slim two points, 10-8.
Countryside was in position to make things really uncomfortable for their fellow McMullen Booth Road rivals, but on the ensuing possession after the safety, a costly personal foul and two straight incompletions by quarterback Trent Chemlik (16-29, 207 yds, 2INT) resulted in yet another tough loss for the Cougars.
“We’re happy about the effort, but every kid over there is unhappy because they didn’t come here for a moral victory, they came here for a win, Countryside coach Eric Schmitz said.
“But there’s gonna be a lot of good lessons learned from this game going forward.”