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Sports

Student in the Stands: Fourth-Quarter Rally Stuns Roswell

A shootout at Ray Manus Stadium ends with a late comeback by the Centennial Knights, leaving the Hornets devastated and winless throughout the first six games to the season.

Shocking the crowd at Ray Manus Stadium and the Roswell football team, the Centennial Knights stormed back late in the fourth quarter to beat the Hornets 32-30.

After trailing the majority of the fourth quarter by the score of 23-30 and only scoring seven points in the second half, the Knights executed a 4:14 60-yard scoring drive on 14 plays to bring the score to 29-30 with only 31 seconds left in the game. However, the game was hardly over.

The Knights used their three remaining timeouts prior to failing to complete a two-point conversion that would have won the game. On the ensuing onside kick, three Hornets players touched the ball but the ball ended up rolling to the Hornets 30-yard line where it was picked up by the Knights' 6-foot-4 senior wide receiver Wade Francis. Out of field goal range and with no timeouts remaining, the Knights were able to draw a defensive pass interference penalty on Roswell, which positioned them at the 18-yard line. The Knight’s then kicked a go-ahead 38-yard field goal to win the game 32-30.

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The Knights may have stalled offensively in the second half, but quarterback Jimmy Meyer led the Knights offensive charge throughout the night. Meyer, who will attend Harvard University in the fall of 2012, completed eight of his 16 attempted passes passing for 192 yards and one touchdown, while scoring three touchdowns. The Knights were also vastly successful while running the ball, picking up a total of 149 yards on 34 carriers. Reeling in six of Meyer’s eight completions, play-making wide receiver Francis had 187 yards receiving, including a 65-yard touchdown bomb to start the second half.

While the Hornets may have lost, several aspects of the game were extremely impressive. The passing game was effective thanks to strong performances by quarterbacks Ryan Monty and Casey Culver, who completed a combined 10 passes on 18 attempts to throw for 228 yards and a touchdown.

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The Hornets running game continued its success from the previous game against North Forsyth. Corey Wilson had his second consecutive 100-yard rushing game, carrying the ball 26 times. Wilson has impressed over the last two games, rushing for 336 yards and scoring three touchdowns.

In an interview earlier this week head coach Justin Sanderson had praise for the junior running back saying, “Corey is a high motor, all business kind of athlete. He runs the ball angry and determined, and is one of the strongest pound for pound athletes I have ever been around.”  With junior running back Andrew Kwateng nursing an ankle injury, sophomore running back Maurice Mitchell was also impressive, at one point scoring on a 54-yard touchdown run.

Despite giving up 32 points, the Hornets defense was greatly improved from the first half of the season. The Hornets managed to maintain the strong Centennial rushing attack, holding the Knights to 4.3 yards per carry.

The Hornets also displayed improved tackling throughout the game and had several tackles for a loss and even two sacks. In addition to the strong tackling, the Roswell defense came away with three turnovers.

The area that was truly the highlight of the Hornets' evening was their special teams play. Several big plays on special teams certainly changed the outcome of the game. On the first drive punter Bennett Barton ran 13 yards for a first down on a fake punt play. After scoring a touchdown to make the score 14-13, the Hornets then successfully recovered an onside kick after Bennett Barton retained his own kick that bounced out of the hands of a Centennial player.

The special teams squad also forced a fumble on a fourth-quarter Knight’s punt. While the special teams may have been exceptional, the inability to successfully field the onside kick late in the fourth quarter was a huge flaw in a almost perfect performance.

The Hornets' fans that came to the first Roswell football home game in over a month on Friday night left in heartbreak after the Knights' late rally.

Losing to Centennial Friday night marks the Hornets' sixth straight loss of the season. The team remains winless so far this season, currently holding a 0-6 record, and now are 0-2 in the 6-AAAAA region. The Hornet’s current 0-6 start marks the first time in the program's 61-year history where a team has failed to win a game in the six games of the season. 

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