On Friday, October 20, 2017, at approximately 9:27 p.m., all the frustration and disappointment of a season that had gone awry subsided in a moment.
Javier Magee’s 41-yard touchdown strike to sophomore wide-out Jay Jones with 3:28 left on the clock tied the score in a back-and-forth bout between two polar opposes in Region 5-4A. The successful PAT that followed gave the visiting Northeast Jones Tigers, 1-7 on the season and 0-3 in region, the lead over Mendenhall, 7-1 on the year and 3-0 in region.
All that could go wrong and had gone wrong over the course of nine weeks suddenly slipped into temporary amnesia, especially for Northeast Jones head coach Keith Braddock.
Northeast Jones held on for the remaining 208 seconds to stunned the Region 5-4A leader, 21-20. The upset of voluminous portion was complete.
“It was a testament to our kids and our coaches,” said Braddock. “Both have been doing things right all year. They continue to work and continue to buy in. They never come out weak or flat.
“I think our effort Friday proved it. Our motto was to come out and just have fun. Kick a few onside kicks here and throw a deep pass there, and in the fourth quarter see what happens. And it obviously worked for us. We just finished from there.”
Injuries snowballed into a catastrophe from the onset of the 2017 season. By Week 4, the Jungle Cats were on their fourth and fifth-string running back, second-string quarterback and a countless other main-stay losses on defense. Braddock and Company managed the overwhelming adversary the best way they could.
“It’s been tough,” said Braddock. “We hate for any kid to get injured and they’ll all important, but some of [those injuries] in their role meant more to the team. When your middle linebacker who makes every tackle gets hurt or a running back, it hurts worst because those are our key spots.
“When it came to our running backs, it seemed there for a while that everyone we put in that position got hurt. But as the clique goes, its the next man up and our kids have done a great job of that. They continue to grind.”
There’s no better way to describe last Friday night’s shocking upset than exactly that. They continued to grind, despite how big their opponent was and in spite of how their season had gone until that point.
Braddock labeled Week 10’s win as “special.”
“It’s how you go through the storms that matter,” said Braddock. “One season with countless injuries will not define how who we are. But how we go through it and how we keep competing for things will. We have learned valuable life lessons from this.
“To see how far our kids have come and how much they have grown from this makes me feel good. It shows me that they have a great deal of respect for our coaches and our school.”
Newton County (1-9) travels to The Jungle this Friday night for both teams season finale. How great would it feel to end the season on a two-game win streak?
“I told our team it’s all good to go and beat the number one team in our region, as well as one of the top 10 4A teams in the state, but its all for naught if we don’t win the last one. Newton County will not come here and lay down. They will fight, and we must be ready to give them all we got.
“Why not go out and finish the season as winners and play with that same intensity as we did last week?”
