Posted on October 23, 2015.
By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The Tennessee Titans Game of the Week lived up to the hype.
The seesaw fourth quarter saw the host Brighton Cardinals on top when the final buzzer sounded. Brighton’s 24-20 victory gave the Munford Cougars their first defeat of the 2015 season.
It appeared the Cougars were on their way toward 9-0 building a 13-3 halftime lead.
Munford’s Anthony Boley put the Cougars ahead 6-0 with an early score. Brighton cut the deficit in half when Nolan Combs hit a field goal.
After a Cardinal turnover, the Cougars drove the ball 45 yards capping it off with a Wilson Lowry 1-yard score. JR Kirby’s bunch was ahead by 10 at the break.
Brighton (8-1) finally crossed the goal line in the third quarter when Malik Jackson tossed a touchdown pass to Malik Mathews to make the score 13-10.
Munford (8-1) closed out the third quarter when an answer from the legs of quarterback Jacob Ross. The senior broke loose for a big run to reach the end zone. The Cougars were ahead 20-10 entering the fourth quarter.
Then it was time for both teams to jump ahead the turnover seesaw. Early in the fourth quarter Munford’s Garrett Baugh raced over to pick off a Brighton pass giving the Cougars the ball on 37-yard line.
Moments later Munford gave the ball right back to Brighton with a fumble. The Cougars didn’t panic with Marcus Webb intercepting the ball for Munford.
That set the table for the biggest turnover of the night. On a deep ball thrown by the Cougars, Brighton’s Deavius Terry extended his arms and gathered in the over thrown pass. Terry raced up field behind blockers before being tackled at the 10-yard line.
With 8 minutes and 3 seconds remaining, Jackson threw his second touchdown of the game hitting slot receiver Austin Kelley for the 7-yard score to make the tally 20-17.
The Cardinal defense forced a Munford punt with 5 minutes and 43 seconds left in the game. Brighton Head Coach Robin Jacobs employed his offense to run the ball with the drive starting 61 yards away from the end zone.
The duo of Mathews and Zach Camp followed the orders of the Brighton coaching staff running the ball for four first downs. With less than 2 minutes remaining, Mathews had the honors of taking the ball into the end zone from 3 yards out to give Brighton the 24-20 lead.
It was up to the Cardinal defense to hold the lead. Brighton defenders KJ Adams and Cameron John sacked Ross respectively to give the Cardinals the victory.
Munford will try to bounce back from it’s first defeat of the season taking on Memphis Central in the season finale. Brighton will travel to Bolton to close out the 2015 regular season.
