A special night in Munfordville was capped by Chandler Hudgens’s interception with 20 seconds left that secured a 43-36 Hart County win over Trigg County in the first round of the Class 3A football playoffs Friday.
The postseason win was the first ever for Hart County in 13 tries and was the school’s first-ever home playoff game.
The pick capped a wild fourth quarter that saw Trigg County erase a 13-point deficit with two touchdowns in a 12-second span. After the Raiders took the lead with over six minutes left, its defense came up with the final two defensive stops over the final 3:31.
Hart County was able to gash Trigg County’s defense to the tune of 402 rushing yards on 47 carries. Their wing-T offense produced seven carries of 20 or more yards.
Trigg County welcomed the return of quarterback Jacob Wease, who had missed the previous two games with a shoulder injury. The Wildcat senior was 17-of-33 passing for 210 yards and three touchdowns. It was an offensive performance that had been missing over Trigg’s previous 10 quarters played.
Trigg County struck first in the contest, taking advantage of a bad punt snap by Hart County that gave the Wildcats the football at the Rader 15-yard line. Four plays later, Wease hit Jerimyah Sshearer across the middle for the touchdown.
Hart County answered with a seven-play, 72-yard drive there was capped by a 2 yard run by Jordan Bradley, one of three rushing touchdowns for the junior. The conversion run failed, giving the Wildcats a 7-6 lead.
Trigg would score on its next drive when Wease hit Jhaden Vaughn down the left sideline for a 38-yard touchdown. The Wildcats appeared headed for a two-touchdown lead just before halftime. On a third and 13 play at the Trigg 23, Raider running back Anthony Lawlis was hit by Trigg’s Anthony Hall. The football popped into the air and was grabbed by Trigg’s Quin Baggett who returned it 77 yards for the apparent score. However, a referee blew the play dead after Baggett grabbed the football. After a lengthy discussion by the officials, Trigg was given the football but no score because the whistle had stopped the play.
Trigg drove to the Hart County 29 but saw the drive stopped on downs. With 33 seconds left before halftime, Hart County struck quickly, driving 71 yards in 33 seconds, and scored the equalizing touchdown on a Clark Rexroat 32-yard run with just two seconds left before intermission.
Hart County scored on its first three drives of the second half. Bradley scored on runs of 10 and 12 yards. The Wildcats countered with a 2 yard run by Kelsey Parham for its first points of the second half.
A 1-yard quarterback sneak by Keaton Walters put Hart County up 35-22 one play into the fourth quarter.
Parham ended an eight-play, 65-yard drive with a 22-yard touchdown was 7:56 left. The Wildcats were able to recover a perfectly placed Reid McCormick kick in Hart County territory and Parham scored on the next play from 39 yards out. Olivia Noffsinger’s extra point put Trigg up 36-35 with 7:44 left.
However, Hart County, who came in averaging 366 rushing yards a game, needed only three plays to cover 50 yards. JD Crump went untouched from 30 yards out with Bradley adding the two-point conversion for a 43-36 Hart County lead.
Trigg County drove to the Raider 15-yard line but Wease’s pass was intercepted after it was bobbled by a Wildcat receiver.
The Wildcat defense, which hadn’t stopped much in the second half, came up with a huge fourth-down stop with 31 seconds left.
Needing only 27 yards to tie the score with 31 seconds left and no timeouts, Wease’s pass across the middle was picked off by Hudgins to solidify Hart County’s first-ever postseason win.
Crump had a big night for Hart County with 191 yards on 18 carries. Bradley added 79 yards on nine carries. Junior Hunter Monroe, who rushed for 1,700 yards the past two seasons at Owensboro Catholic before transferring to Hart County this year, made his season debut Friday. He added 83 yards on 10 carries.
The Raiders finished with 458 total yards.
For the Wildcats, Wease put forth a gutsy effort with 210 yards passing after being cleared five days prior to resuming throwing after suffering an injury to his throwing shoulder in an October 14 win over Webster County.
Ivey Redd caught five passes for 65 yards while Vaughn added four catches for 73 yards and two scores. Parham added 113 yards on 23 carries as the Wildcats rolled up 336 yards of offense.
For Trigg County, its season ends with a record of 7-4 – its best record in 11 years. However, the Wildcats have now six straight playoff games for the first time in school history. Since making the move to Class 3A, Trigg County has a post-season record of 1-10.
Hart County improved to 9-2, establishing a school record for wins in a season. The Raiders will make the 153-mile trip to Morganfield next week to play Union County, who hammered Glasgow 50-20 to run its record to 11-0.
One Response
So do the Raiders even have any kind of passing or kicking game? Not that they ever have had either. Glad to see them make it this far but enjoy it while it lasts, which likely won’t be past round two.