By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Undefeated Southeast Alamance came back from a 21-point deficit to defeat host Eastern Alamance 45-42 and capture the outright Mid-Carolina Conference football championship Friday night in Mebane.
The Stallions scored on a controversial final play of the first half and then rang up the first 24 points of the second half before using clutch ball-control offense to eat up the final minutes in what’s bound to be a game, which lasted nearly three hours, talked about for years.
“We had to just execute at the highest level,” Southeast tight end/defensive lineman Drew Easter said.
Tyler Jackson threw for four touchdowns and ran for another for Southeast (10-0 overall, 6-0 Mid-Carolina Conference). D.J. Callis had a 51-yard touchdown run on Southeast’s first possession.
“We put some points on the board,” Eastern coach John Kirby said. “They’re a big-play team and they big-played us.”
But a dazzling first half from Eastern quarterback Braxton Ballard and his receivers nearly stole the show in front of a huge crowd on Eastern’s Senior Night.
Ballard threw for four touchdowns and 284 yards before halftime. Devontia Clark caught two long TD passes and Jusiah Goldson had another. Dereon Garner ran 17 yards for a touchdown and Ballard hit Christopher Loy with a conversion pass, pushing the Eagles (7-2, 4-2) to a 28-7 lead.
“They were one step ahead of us, Kirby and those guys,” Southeast coach Tony Aguilar said.
The Stallions had trailed against Southern Alamance, but nothing quite like this.
“A little stunned here and there,” Easter said. “We just need to calm down.”
Yet a major uproar was soon to come. Jackson threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Joseph Gibbs with 2:10 left in the half.
Eastern wasn’t done, with Goldston corralling two Ballard passes covering a total of 61 yards. Then Bullard fired a 13-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Eichmann over the middle with 34.8 seconds to go.
An unsportsmanlike conducted penalty following Eastern’s TD helped Southeast with field possession before the final snap of the half.
Jackson threw to Easter, who pitched to Gibbs for a 32-yard TD – with a flag on the field. A call of an illegal forward pass from Easter to Gibbs was waved off.
Kirby pleaded with game officials at the end of the half and again before the start of the second half. By then, video clips of the play had circulated in the stadium – and probably across Mebane and Haw River – that clearly showed the flip going forward.
“It’s going to be all over Facebook,” Aguilar said, noting it takes some breaks to win tight games. “And I think we got one.”
After the game, Kirby said the result came against a team they might meet in the postseason.
The Stallions came out firing in the second half.
“We stayed composed and had to come back one by one,” Gibbs said of the possessions.
Southeast’s Jatayvion McMillian scored on a 40-yard touchdown pass on the opening drive of the third quarter.
“Hats off to our coaching staff for keeping our guys together and to our players for going out there and executing,” Aguilar said.
The Stallions then drove to the Eastern 1-yard line, but they were stopped on third- and fourth-down runs. On the next play, Eastern was stopped in the end zone for a safety.
Southeast regained the lead on Jackson’s 29-yard run. He threw to Easter for a two-point conversion and a 38-35 edge.
The Stallions completed their 24-point third quarter on Logan Luang-Sy’s 31-yard touchdown reception.
Eastern reached the Southeast 18 before a dropped fourth-down pass. But the Eagles got the ball back and scored on Jamez Cochran’s 14-yard run with 6:53 left.
Then the Stallions played keep-away with three key first-down pickups, including a gamble on fourth-and-1 from their own 39 with 4:42 left. Callis gained 5 yards. Later, Jackson connected for Gibbs on third down – a play that Gibbs said he was most proud of – and then on fourth-and-5, Jackson scrambled and hooked up with Easter on a clinching play.
“We trust our offense,” Aguilar said. “It was nice to see.”
Southern Alamance 29, Western Alamance 20: At Elon, Sincere Thompson ran for four touchdowns and 324 yards, but the visiting Patriots (8-2, 4-2) needed a comeback.
Thompson began the scoring with a 57-yard run.
Brock Curry returned a kickoff for a Western touchdown and Christian Payton scored on a 2-yard run as Western held a 12-7 first-quarter lead that stood until the third quarter.
Thompson ran in from 2 yards out for the go-ahead points. Thompson’s 64-yard run on the second play of the next series along with his two-point conversion run boosted the margin early in the fourth quarter.
Thompson scored again on a 4-yard run.
Western’s Grayson Smith had a 2-yard touchdown run following a Southern fumble. Kylon Richardson’s two-point conversion run completed the scoring.
Western fell to 5-5, 2-4.
Williams 35, Roxboro Person 6: At Burlington, Williams joined Southern and Eastern in second place in the Mid-Carolina Conference by winning its regular-season home finale at Burlington Memorial Stadium.
The Bulldogs (6-2, 4-2) led 14-0 at halftime Roxboro Person fell to 2-8, 1-5.
Hibriten 48, Cummings 12: At Burlington, Hibriten completed a 10-0 regular season with the non-league outcome.
Cummings dropped to 1-9.
Other champions of note
Eastern Randolph, coached by Graham resident Burton Cates, defeated visiting Jordan-Matthews 59-6 on Friday night in Ramseur to clinch the outright Four Rivers Conference championship. The Wildcats are 7-3, 4-0.
- High Point Andrews, coached by former Southeast assistant coach Mook Reynolds, scored the final touchdown to defeat visiting Randleman 26-21 and claim the Piedmont Athletic Conference title Thursday night at Simeon Stadium in High Point. Reynolds was Southeast’s first defensive coordinator for the 2023 and 2024 seasons before taking the head coaching job in Guilford County. The only loss for High Point Andrews (9-1) this year came to visiting Williams.
