Murphy – After a 22-yard touchdown catch by Hunter Stalcup on fourth down gave Murphy a 21-14 lead over Fannin County with 6:11 remaining, the message on the Bulldogs’ sideline was simple.
“Finish it.”
Murphy thought it took a big step to finishing after turning the Rebels over on downs on the Bulldogs’ 48-yard line, but Kenyon Nichols dropped a wide-open pass from Brady Grant on third down and Murphy had to punt.
Will Joyner’s punt traveled to Fannin County’s 8-yard line, and the Rebels went backward and faced fourth-and-11. But Rebels quarterback Lawson Sullivan found Tucker Dockery for a 20-yard gain.
Then, on 4th down with 10 yards to go from the Fannin County 27, Sullivan scrambled for 28 yards. The Rebels moved the ball all the way to the Murphy 26-yard line with 4.3 seconds left.
Sullivan dropped back, quickly scanned the field, took off and cut down the left sideline. The buzzer sounded. He was first met by Cameron Clem at the 2 yard line before Stalcup finished off the tackle. The Rebels were called for a holding on the play, but it didn’t matter.
Murphy finally finished off the win.
“It was a heck of a drive for them at the end, and our kids made a play,” Murphy head coach Joseph Watson said. “They made a play to win it, and offensively made a play on fourth down to win it and then a stop right there at the buzzer.
“It was a sweet feeling.”
It was a sloppy game, with five combined turnovers and 18 penalties, but the Bulldogs were able to make a few more plays when it mattered. While Fannin County (2-2 overall) graduated 22 seniors from a team that dominated Murphy (3-1) during a 56-30 loss last year, they were still physical up front and tried to set the tone on the opening drive.
The 13-play, 81-yard drive took more than seven minutes off the clock. Sullivan’s two-yard touchdown run gave Fannin County a 6-0 lead with 4:46 to go in the first quarter. But after that, the Rebels scored just once. Murphy’s defense held serve, including some big fourth-down stops. Sophomore Ryan Payne had three interceptions, the first coming with 1:09 left in the first quarter.
“We knew that we had to bring out different formations on defense and sets,” Payne said. “We bowed our necks down when we needed to and got it done.”
Though Murphy didn’t capitalize on his first interception, they did on his
second. A 16-yard touchdown run on fourth and five by Stalcup and a Joyner extra point put Murphy in front 7-6 with 36.8 seconds to go in the first half.
After the Bulldogs took advantage of a Fannin County mistake, the Rebels did the same in the third quarter. One play after a desperation throw by Grant off a bad snap should’ve been intercepted by Sullivan, Clem couldn’t hang onto the ball and Fannin County recovered at its own 44-yard line. On fourth-and-14 at the Bulldogs 33, Sullivan hit Brayden Taylor over the middle for a touchdown, then found Weaver for the two-point conversion and a 14-7 lead.
Murphy would answer back with an eight-play, 61-yard drive, getting 44 yards on the last three plays. First, Grant found Payne for 17 yards on third-and-13. Then Clem broke a few tackles for a 23-yard gain, and Stalcup punched in a four-yard touchdown to tie the game with 2:21 left in the third quarter.
Payne intercepted another pass on the next drive, but Tucker Dockery got the ball right back for Fannin with an interception of his own. The Rebels drove to the Bulldogs’ 5 yard line before shooting themselves in the foot with penalties and having issues with the Murphy pass rush. Led by Camden Breazeale and Charlie Graves, the Bulldogs had five sacks.
“Camden is a pain in the butt in practice,” Watson said. “He’s hard to block, and once they start being hard to block in practice, we know you got something. And Charlie’s playing his butt off, too.”
Murphy followed that stop with a 68-yard drive to take the lead, then did what they needed to in order to finish the win. After everything that could go wrong did last year in Blue Ridge, the Bulldogs did what they needed to at the right moments.
“I hope we’ll be able to lean on this later in the season,” Watson said. “... As long as we learn and continue to learn. We’ll be all right.”
Murphy will wrap up non-conference play with New Faith Christian Academy (0-3) on homecoming night this Friday. The Riverdale, Ga., private school has lost to Andrews 56-0 and Hayesville 56-8 this season.