Two-point conversion ends Generals’ season

FRANKLIN — Saturday’s Group A, Division 1 state semifinal football rematch between William Campbell and Franklin at Franklin Armory Field had the atmosphere of a title fight, with the Broncos taunting their guests at midfield well before the opening kickoff.
The final decision, 22-21 in Franklin’s favor, was nothing like the teams’ first state semifinal meeting at the same site four years ago, when the Broncos stampeded the Generals 34-0 with powerful fullback Donielle Babb carrying them on his back to their first state crown.
This was a much tougher pill for the Generals (11-2) to swallow, knowing this time, they came in as the favorites with two state titles on their belt and a senior class loaded with talent and experience.
But when senior quarterback Baron Adams’ fourth-and-5 pass slipped through the hands of senior slot receiver Stanley Peerman at the Franklin 35 with just 2 minutes, 17 seconds to go, all the Broncos (11-2) had to do was pick up a first down and run out the clock to punch their ticket to Salem for next Saturday’s state championship game.
“You’ve got to give Franklin all the credit in the world,” William Campbell coach Brad Bradley said. “They’re still playing and we’re not. That’s what state championship football is all about. Nothing’s guaranteed. It wasn’t guaranteed for us to be there. You’ve got to play your way there and that’s what we didn’t get done tonight.
“Our kids have nothing to be ashamed of,” he added. “They played hard, they gave everything they had, we just came up one point short.”
Franklin coach Darren Parker and his players pulled together and pulled off their third straight postseason upset, after avenging regular-season losses to Sussex-Central and Colonial Beach in the Region A playoffs.
“We didn’t worry about what was in the paper, we didn’t worry about what was on the Internet, we didn’t worry about what people said, we worried about ourselves,” Parker said, noting that many skeptics predicted the Broncos would lose by 70 points or more. “We didn’t pay attention to all that. We played football. We told the team, ‘If we prepare ourselves every day (in practice) and execute on Saturday, we’re going to win.’
“As a coaching staff, we put a game plan in and we left it to the players,” he added. “We made the proper adjustments and the kids executed.”
He defended the pre-game team challenge, which may have caught the Generals off guard and hung in the back of their heads.
“When you get to this level, you have to be on a mental high and you have to be on a physical high,” Parker said. “The kids were focused and we prevailed.”
For a brief moment early in the second half, it looked like it was going to be William Campbell’s day.
Two plays and an extra-point kick.
That’s all it took for the Generals to seize a 21-14 lead on their first possession after halftime, less than a minute after stopping Franklin running back Isaiah Hudson an inch short on fourth-and-one at his own 45.
Adams kept through the middle and snuck outside on the ensuing play, picking up 43 yards down to the Franklin 3 and Peerman took it in from there on first-and-goal for the go-ahead touchdown, capped by Donald Byrd’s third PAT.
Two plays and a two-point conversion.
That’s all it took for the Broncos to reclaim the lead on quarterback Donzell Shearin’s 70-yard touchdown strike over the middle to Derrick Thompson, who beat Terrance Younger and sprinted diagonally left to elude his pursuit into the end zone, setting up Elliot Bottoms’ go-ahead two-point run to the left side.
“That really broke our back,” Bradley said. “It’s one of those situations where we’re in man coverage and we just fell asleep and they hit the big one on us.”
“Coach (Parker) told us never to give up and when they scored, we just retaliated,” Shearin added. “Our team plays as hard as we can (and) we just take everything they give us.”
Two huge fourth-and-long pass plays produced the first and final scores of the first half.
With the Generals driving early, the Broncos’ Aaron Smith picked up a fumble in the backfield by Timmy Wright and returned it 25 yards to William Campbell’s 45. Five plays later, facing fourth-and-8 at the Generals’ 30, Shearin rolled to his right and found Tyler Childress open inside the 10-yard-line, where he made the catch and nearly scored inside the right pylon. Shearin snuck in on the next play, leaning backwards into a pile across the goal line for a 6-0 lead.
William Campbell responded quickly on its next drive, highlighted by Peerman’s 17-yard reverse and a 16-yard keeper by Adams, who sneaked in for a 4-yard TD on first-and-goal, tying the game at 6.
Trailing 14-7, Adams set up the tying score four minutes before halftime with his 15-yard run down to the Broncos’ 32. Facing fourth-and-11 at the 33, he then lofted a perfectly placed pass to Younger, his favorite deep target, who caught it in stride at the 5 and pranced into the end zone untouched.
“We gave it our all (but) we just came up short,” Byrd said, noting the trash talk and bottom-of-the-pile punching and kicking was a distraction. “There was a lot of hostility on the field and it was hard to stay focused. Mistakes that shouldn’t have happened, happened. It just wasn’t our time.”