Halls scores winning TD in final minute, defeats Crockett

JONESBOROUGH — David Crockett didn't go down without a fight, but it eventually fell to Knox Halls in a first-round TSSAA playoffs shootout on Friday night at Crockett. Sophomore Knox Burton rushed for three touchdowns in the second half, including a game-winning 14-yarder with 20.1 seconds remaining, as the Red Devils eked out a 35-32 victory. Halls (6-5) will visit Rhea County (9-2) on Friday. Rhea County defeated Tullahoma, 17-14. Crockett, which ended the season with a 7-4 record, got Herculean efforts from senior quarterback A.J. Wynn and sophomore running Jasiyah Antone. Wynn rushed 13 times for 155 yards and three TDs, including an 8-yarder that gave Pioneers a 32-28 lead with 1:01 remaining. Antone rushed 21 times for 167 yards and a TD. Trailing 32-28, Halls started from its 34-yard line with 58.5 seconds left. It had all three timeouts, and did most of the damage on the ground during the game-winning march. Crockett coach Hayden Chandley said he regretted not trying to use more clock on the Pioneers' final scoring drive, but cutting it close in that situation would've really been threading a needle. The Pioneers competed until the end. Wynn returned a kickoff to the 50-yard line with 10.2 seconds left. But the Pioneers threw an incomplete pass on first down, and with only five seconds left, didn't have another chance to try and gain 15 or 20 yards for a field goal attempt from Ruben Ibarra-Flores, who'd already made a 46-yarder. The game's final play was a hook-and-ladder from Wynn to Marckis Carrier to Antone, which went for 30 yards before Antone was stopped at the Halls 20. "Man, I'm just so proud of the way that we played," Chandley said. "The defense competed there in the first half. And then offensively there in the second half, you know, it was probably our best half of the season offensively. We basically scored every time we had it." Halls' freshman 1,000-yard rusher, Maverick Sharp, rushed 17 times for 115 yards. Burton carried seven times for 142 yards. "They got us in a couple of bad run sets," Chandley said. "We didn't fit things very well and they made us pay. Their backs ran really, really hard and broke a lot of our arm tackles tonight. "Offensively, for us, we found a few formations that we really liked spreading 'em out and we felt like we were getting a good push up front and making their linebackers try and tackle four (Wynn) and 24 (Antone). We were able to have a lot of success running the ball there in the second half by getting a light box and taking advantage of it." The game was scoreless the opening 23 minutes and 51 seconds. But the teams combined for 67 points in the ensuing 24:09, beginning with Halls quarterback Lincoln Wilson's 10-yard TD pass to Eddy Soto with 9.5 seconds left in the first half. Crockett opened the second half with a seven-play drive that Ibarra-Flores capped with a 46-yard field goal. "It was good to see him make a long one in a game," Chandley said. "We see him make those kicks of 50-plus all the time in practice." Burton scored on runs of 25, 49, 37 and 14 yards. Wynn's TD runs were from 67, 14 and eight yards out. "It's one thing to run away from guys around here," Chandley said. "But on the one long touchdown run, I vividly remember him running away from the corner and the safety. That usually doesn't happen against a team that has the word Knoxville in front of it." Antone didn't get ran down, either. His 40-yard TD and Wynn's two-point conversion pass to Marckis Carrier got Crockett within 21-18 with 9:59 left in the game. "We see flashes of him in practice all the time," Chandley said. "We've been waiting, really, all year for him to have kind of a true breakout game running the football, and he definitely did that tonight. He had his best offensive outing of the season." Halls paying special attention to 6-foot-6 tight end Colton Mullis helped open things up for the Pioneers backs. This was the only the sixth time in the program's 56 years that Crockett won at least seven games. It went 8-1-1 during its inaugural season in 1971, won seven in '74 and 2000, 12 in '18 and nine in 2020. "If you'd polled a hundred people in Jonesborough about if we'd win seven games this year, I think you might've gotten one 'yes,'" Chandley said. "And they would've probably been related to somebody on the team. … It shows the grit of this team and just how well they jelled together. Leadership was a big part of it. These guys led from within and it showed on the field during tight moments." Halls was playing without its top two tacklers, Carson Pearce and Gavin Self, due to a one-game suspension. Crockett lost linebacker Brayden Stoots to a knee injury during the final game of the regular season. "He was a key cog defensively and played really well for us all year," Chandley said. "We're gonna miss our 10 seniors. It was a special group." Halls 35, David Crockett 32 Halls 0 7 7 21 -- 35 DC 0 0 10 22 -- 32 Second quarter H—Eddy Soto 10 pass from Lincoln Wilson (Zander Wilson kick), 7-0, :9.5 Third quarter DC—Ruben Ibarra-Flores 46 FG, 3-7, 6:21 H—Knox Burton 25 run (Wilson kick), 14-3, 3:08 DC—A.J. Wynn 67 run (Ibarra-Flores kick), 10-14, 1:30 Fourth quarter H—Burton 49 run (Wilson kick), 21-10, 11:45 DC—Jasiyah Antone 40 run (Marckis Carrier pass from Wynn), 18-21, 9:59 DC—Wynn 14 run (Ibarra-Flores kick), 25-21, 7:20 H—Burton 37 run (Wilson kick), 28-25, 4:23 DC—Wynn 8 run (Ibarra-Flores kick), 32-28, 1:01 H—Burton 14 run (Wilson kick), 35-32, :20.1