Cavaliers need three OTs to top host Hilltoppers

The fourth annual Black and Blue Bowl between E.C. Glass and Jefferson Forest lived up to its name.

Every inch, every completed pass and every kick during the three overtime periods put the crowd a bit closer to the edge of their seats until the Cavaliers’ Dylan Sims’ 18-yard field goal separated the two teams and JF walked out of City Stadium with a 31-28 victory.

Sims had missed a potentially game-winning 42-yard field goal with 40.9 seconds left in regulation, but was 3-for-3 in overtime kicks.

“We had some kids out (with injuries),” Cavaliers coach Don Rice said. “But kids just stepped up. (Glass is a good football team) and for us to come out of here with a three-overtime victory says something about our kids’ never-say-quit attitude.”

Jefferson Forest (3-1, 1-0 Seminole) got the ball first in the first overtime and scored on its second play, an 8-yard touchdown pass that Harrison Loy went up and snatched out of the hands of a Hilltopper defender. Sims added the PAT and JF took a 21-14 lead.

Glass (0-5, 0-1) answered with a 9-yard pass as James Gaines found Joe Wertz on a quick slant. Jake Prest added the PAT to send the game to a second overtime.

The Hilltoppers had the ball first and this time they scored on a 10-yard pass as Demitrus Garland wrestled the ball away from Loy in the end zone. Prest’s PAT made it 28-21.

The Cavaliers returned to their run-first roots and handed the ball off three consecutive times to Rashad Hall on their ensuing possession.

Hall took a toss and swept around the right end, raced toward the pylon and just before being driven out of bounds, reached out and barely slipped the ball inside the pylon. Sims sent it to a third OT with the extra point.

Glass had the ball first in the third overtime, but was facing a fourth-and-goal on the 4 after three running plays. Prest came out to attempt the 21-yard field goal, but a poor snap threw off the timing of the play.

By the time Prest kicked the ball, JF had come crashing through the line and Colby Rhodes partially blocked the kick.

Still, the ball tumbled toward the goal post, finally, and excruciatingly, striking the front of the cross bar.

JF ran the ball three times and sent in Sims to finish the game.

“The kids played their hearts out,” Hilltoppers coach Richard Trent said. “I thought we had a really great second-half game plan. We just came up a little short.”

The first half was dominated by the Cavaliers. JF’s defense held Glass to no first downs and the Hilltoppers had minus-7 yards of offense in the first half.

The Cavaliers’ Rashad Hall ran for 95 yards on 23 carries in the first half, but all JF had to show for it was a pair of Sims field goals.

The Hilltoppers moved the ball much better in the second half as Gaines found more time to throw the ball.

Gaines was 9-for-11 for 111 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown pass on a screen play to Traves Wesley that made the score 7-6 just seconds into the fourth quarter.

JF answered with a 9-yard run by Jeff Brown and a two-point conversion on a terrific diving catch by Ryan Gingrich, giving the Cavaliers a 14-7 lead.

The Hilltoppers leveled the game with a 14-play, 58-yard drive capped by a 2-yard Wesley run.

Hall finished the game with 214 yards rushing on 42 attempts.