Taylor Jackson and the Eagles Light Up the Score Board at Ken White Field!

Waleska, GA - Taylor Jackson had one of his best days ever as a football player at Ken White Field Saturday afternoon in a double-overtime victory over the visiting Bears of the University of Pikeville!  The final was 41-35 and it took everything the Eagles had to squeeze out this AAC win to move to 1-0 in the conference.

Reinhardt would strike first in quarter one on a drive that took seven minutes off the clock and was one of Taylor Jackson's two rushing touchdowns in the game.  The drive was 14 plays that covered 77 hards. Pikeville would answer quickly led by their star quarterback, Lee Kirkland, who was coming off a week where he passed for over six hundred yards.  The Eagles defense was able to hold Kirkland to 243 passing yards, but he was able to get 3 touchdowns in the air and matched Jackson with two rushing touchdowns.

The Eagles scored again just before the half to break the seven-all tie. Jordan Ghant got open in the middle of the field right at the end zone for the 20-yard strike from Jackson.  This put the Eagles up 14 to 7 going into halftime.

Pikeville received to start the second half of the game and marched it quickly downfield on an eight-play drive and knotted the game at 14 all. Jackson and Kirkland were like two Wild West gunslingers battling it out and neither one wanted to back down. Jackson answered back on the next drive taking the Eagles 74 yards, which ended with a Jakari Clark touchdown grab. Clark did a stop pattern around the 15-yard line and put a move on the Bear defensive back that left him on the ground watching Clark head right into the endzone putting the Eagles up 21-14 midway through the third quarter.

Again, the Bears would answer in the fourth quarter which tied the game at 21 all and left only eight minutes in the game. After a stop, the Bears would get the ball back and take the ball 92 yards a score with just 1:14 on the clock. At this point in the game, things looked very dim for the Eagles down 21-28 - but they had two timeouts left and needed to go 55 yards to send it to overtime.

On the final drive of regulation, Jackson would step up once more.  He was able to take the ball down the field 7 plays with several times it appeared that the Eagles might be finished.  On the final play of the drive, Jackson was able to scramble from the pocket where he found some open ground and eventually pounded the ball into the endzone sending the game into overtime.  Alex Hardy made the pressure-filled extra point equalizing the game at 28 all.

In overtime, the Eagles did not waste any time to get on the board.  With the ball at the north endzone, Jackson hit Luis Morris on a post pattern with a defender draped on his back.  Morris used his power to push towards the endzone and with one final leap - Morris did cross the plane for the first score of overtime. Eagles led  35-28.

To continue the cycle of the Day, Pikeville's Kirkland was able to work the ball steadily from the 25 to put them inside the one-yard line.  With his big size, the Bears opted to let Kirkland ram the ball behind the offensive line.  The two lines met at the goalline and without much movement, the referees saw that Kirkland did just enough to put the ball across the goalline to tie the game once more, 35 all.

The Eagles seemed to have their backs against the wall once more as the Bears were not going away.  Jackson would have to use his heroics once more and he found tight end, Colin Fletcher on the final play of the Eagles drive.  Fletcher made an outstanding catch where he had to stretch out on the backside of the defender to rope the ball in.  The play was reviewed by the officials, but the play would stand putting the Eagles up 41-35.  Reinhardt would go for the two-point conversion, which they did not make.  The play was a good misdirection play that sent everyone right and left the tight end open on the left, but the ball was just out of reach of the out-stretched arms of Jack Wallace.

Up by just six points, the Eagles' defense needed to step up against the talented Bears quarterback, which they had trouble doing in the second half of the game. The defense would do their job on this one as they stopped Kirkland from getting into the endzone on the final drive. Kirkland ended this drive with three incomplete passes and the Eagles would take the win for their first AAC victory of the season and extend their record to 3-2 on the season.

Jackson was the definite leader for the Eagles throwing for 266 yards and 4 touchdown passes and running for two touchdowns.  Jerdavian Colbert was a workhorse in the backfield eating up yards all day long for the Eagles. Colbert ended the afternoon with 155 total yards on 28 carries.

Defensively, Vertez Shorter and Cameron Brooks led the Eagles with 7 tackles a piece.

Next up for the Eagles will be a road game on Saturday, October 14th at St. Andrews.  This and the remaining regular season games for the Eagles are all AAC matchups. The Eagles need to run the table in their conference games to once again put themselves into the NAIA National Playoffs.

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