Saints Make Late Run To Elude Leopards

By Chip Souza

Posted: November 21, 2009 at 4:46 a.m.

Anthony Reyes
Shiloh Christian running back Wilson Huett sprints upfield against DeQueen during the Class 4A state playoffs Friday in Champions Stadium in Springdale.

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Shiloh Christian coach Josh Floyd figured his team would have to shake some rust off after a bye week in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs.

He didn’t know it would take three quarters to do it.

Shiloh (10-1) turned two third-quarter De Queen mistakes into touchdowns to turn a 35-35 tie into a 56-35 victory Friday night in Champions Stadium.

The win sets up a game many in the state have circled on their calendars in anticipation of next week as the defending state champion Saints host perennial power Nashville (12-0).

But for a while that much-anticipated matchup appeared in a little jeopardy as the Leopards (7-5) were giving Shiloh all it wanted and then some.

“It’s always a concern when you haven’t played in a couple of weeks,” Floyd said. “That may have been part of our problem and De Queen is a good team. In any other conference in 4A they are a one or two seed.”

When De Queen’s speedy quarterback Scooter Ervin went 80 yards for a touchdown with 5 minutes, 45 seconds left in the third quarter, then Corey Morgan scored one play after a Leopards interception, the Leopards had two scores in 26 seconds and the game was tied at 35.

On the interception, De Queen’s Greg White leaped up to intercept Shiloh quarterback Kiehl Frazier and returned the pick to the Saints 23, setting up Morgan’s bizarre touchdown in which the Saints appeared to have him tackled. But Morgan never touched the ground, instead rolling over a Saints tackler, popping to his feet and racing into the end zone.

But as quickly as the Leopards got back into the game, they got steamrolled with 21 straight points. Two of the scores came as a direct result of De Queen turnovers, one when a high snap sailed over Ervin’s head and Shiloh’s Jake Scott recovered the fumble for a score, and another when White’s fumble ended a drive and the Saints went 69 yards in just 5 plays for Wilson Huett’s 18-yard score. Huett’s run made it 56-35 with just over three minutes left.

“Our kids came ready to play,” said De Queen coach Chris Vereen. “We knew Shiloh was going to score big points and we had to match them blow-for-blow and we just make a couple of critical mistakes there at the end.”

For three quarters the game went back and forth with the team’s trading blows. Shiloh scored on its third play as Frazier went 57 yards, then De Queen battled back to take leads of 14-7 and 21-14 as White scored on two short runs and on a 45-yard pass from Ervin.

The Saints tied the score at 21 on Frazier’s short run, then took a 28-21 lead at the half when Samuel Harvill stripped White of the ball and Jacob Coffman recovered. Four plays later Chris Bryant scored from the 5.

“We haven’t been in a game like this in a while,” Floyd said. “We knew it was going to take awhile. I mean, (De Queen) is fast. We haven’t seen athletes like that in a while. So it took us awhile to get adjusted to that speed.”

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