Leesville Road football
PHOTO BY ROB ORAZI
Leesville Road senior Thurston Cox (left) congratulates QB Austin Berrios during the Pride's 20-13 victory over Broughton Friday night. Berrios amassed more than 200 yards of offense in the postseason game. With the win, Leesville advances to play at Fayetteville Jack Britt Friday.
Pride capsizes Caps in 'thriller'
Typically, when a defensive player makes a successful stop on fourth down, the opponents' drive is over. But that wasn't the case for Leesville Road's Gordon Martin Friday night.
Late in the fourth quarter of Friday's 4-AA state playoff showdown at Broughton, Martin was in coverage when Capitals' quarterback Jeff Moore’s pass appeared to hit the ground two yards before bouncing into the hands of his receiver.
However, the officials ruled it a legal catch giving Broughton a first down and hope, trailing 20-13 with 1:39 remaining in the game..
How does the defensive back respond? Martin steps in front of Moore’s next pass seemingly ending the game again.
But a pass interference call again gave the Capitals new life. Undeterred, Martin wouldn’t be denied on the next play hauling in a game-sealing interception and guaranteeing his Pride a 20-13 victory.
With the win, Leesville advances to the second round of the state playoffs against Fayetteville Jack Britt.
Following the contest, Leesville coach David Green explained the contest's unique series of events which put the Pride an emotional roller coaster.
“You think you’ve got it on fourth down and then you find out you didn’t,” the coach shrugged. “And then you think Gordon's got a pick and it’s over but he didn’t. He then finally gets that pick. Gordon played real well. You have got to have guys like that who step up and make big plays to win.”
Even more impressive is Martin hadn't played on defense until late in the season, and is still learning the position, Green explained.
Martin wasn’t the only member of the Pride forced into a new role Friday. With starting quarterback Josh Stanley and back-up QB Logan Bible both out with injuries, sophomore Austin Berrios stepped in to run the Leesville attack.
Any doubts of Berrios’ ability to control the game and the Pride offense was quickly erased as he marched his team 82 yards on Leesville's opening drive and scored on a 14-yard keeper.
Two drives later Berrios orchestrated an 80-yard drive, capped by a Dylan Edwards touchdown, giving the Pride a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Green was thrilled with the sophomore’s play, especially considering his performance came in a postseason contest against a Cap-7 Conference rival.
Berrios finished with 170 rushing yards, and another 36 in the air, and the sophomore accounted for 206 of the Pride’s 229 yards of total offense.
“You have a much more basic package with Austin in there,” Green explained. “He made some great runs out there. Those aren't bad stats for a kid in his situation put in against a good defensive team”
PHOTO BY ROB ORAZI
Leesville Road head coach David Green gives his troops a "spirited" talk Friday night.
Trailing 14-0 at halftime, Broughton changed its game plan in the second half putting seven and eight players in the box in an attempt to slow down the Leesville running attack.
The strategy was successful as the Pride only managed 62 yards on the ground in the final half — and 51 of those came on a Berrios scramble on a touchdown run. With the score, Leesville led 20 – 0 entering the fourth.
But Broughton wouldn't give up, battling back with two fourth-quarter touchdowns, pulling with seven points, 20-13.
In need of defensive stop to hold on to the win, the Pride looked to its three defensive stars of the night. Junior Bryan Ball sacked Moore twice on the final drive and Martin made the game-clinching INT — his second of the game. But no one made bigger plays than Edwards.
The two-way player tallied five tackles for a loss and also hurried Moore on multiple occasions. Edwards also made a critical pass deflection on fourth down early in the final quarter to thwart a Capitals' drive.
“I just tried to come through for my team,” Edwards explained. “I didn’t do as well on offense as I should have. I had to come up big on defense.”
While he wasn't pleased with allowing Broughton back into the game, Green couldn't complain too much with his team recording a postseason win.
“It was a thriller,” the coach explained. “I thought we played pretty well for the first two and half quarters and we got up 20 and it looked like we let off a little bit and didn’t play as well or as aggressive as we had played earlier. It almost came back to bite us, but I’m happy we held on.”
Leesville travels to Fayetteville Jack Britt Friday. The Buccaneers defeated Panther Creek 63-34 in its first-round match-up.
