Fort Campbell Stuns Maroons With Late Touchdown Pass

I may be paraphrasing this a little bit, but you will still get the gist of it. The old adage says that the longer a favored team in a contest allows the underdog in that same contest to hang around, the riskier it becomes. The Madisonville-North Hopkins Maroons can attest to that after they allowed the Fort Campbell Falcons to hang around just a little too long Friday night.

Eric Greene made an incredible catch and run on a 63 yard touchdown pass from J.P. Perryman and then Perryman, who was essentially playing on good leg most of the second half dashed to the end zone for the game-winning two-point conversion with 43 seconds left as the Fort Campbell Falcons pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season so far in the state with a 41-40 win over Madisonville-North Hopkins at Fryar Stadium.

The win was the first one for the Falcons over the Maroons since the 2005 season.

For the Falcons, it was a good thing that there were only 43 seconds left on the clock when they scored the go-ahead points. The Maroons took the ensuing kickoff and quickly marched down the field and got into Falcon territory before they simply ran out of clock. Kanyon Johnson ran out of bounds at the Fort Campbell 17 as the horn sounded and the Falcon frenzy broke out on the field.

The winning score capped off a frenetic and nail-biting final six minutes of the game that wild momentum swings in both directions.

Leading 32-26, the Maroons appeared to marching down the field with a chance to put the game away. That is until Fort Campbell recovered a Kanyon Johnson fumble with 6 minutes to go in their own end of the field. The Falcons moved down the field and scored when J.P. Perryman hit Antonio Rivera going down the seam with a dart for a 24 yard touchdown with 3:43 to go in the game. The extra point put the Falcons up 33-32.

The Maroons, who racked up over 550 total yards, got ther high powered offense moving and quickly marched down the field. Markezz Hightower capped off the drive with a four yard run with 1:40 left on the clock. Kanyon Johnson then scored the Maroons fifth two-point conversion of the night to take a 40-33 lead.

Give the Falcons plenty of credit, at this point, and other points through the night, it would have been easy for them to say “we put up a good fight, but……”, however they did not get anywhere close to doing that on this Friday night. Instead they promptly took off on what would be the game- winning drive.

The game started off like it finished, with some big plays. Madisonville squibbed the opening kickoff in an effort to not let the Falcons get a big return with their speed. That plan did not go very well as Torrance Dixon took the squib kick 65 yards to the house and the Falcons led 7-0 just ten seconds into the game.

On the first play from scrimmage after the ensuing kickoff, Markezz Hightower took off on a 67 yard gallop, and with the two-point conversion the Maroons led 8-7 and just 27 seconds had been played.

Things quieted down for a little while after that as the first quarter would play out without another score for either team.

The Maroons got into the end zone again with 7:27 to go in the first half when Kanyon Johnson hit Ryder Sandidge for a 18 yard score and with the two-point conversion, Madisonville-North Hopkins was up 16-7.

Fort Campbell responded by driving the ball down the field and scoring a touchdown of their own, this one a one yard run from J.P. Perryman with 3:53 to go in the half, cutting the Maroon lead to 16-14.

Madisonville did not take long to respond as the Maroons went right back down the field in the other direction. Markezz Hightower capped off the drive with a two yard run and with a two-point conversion, Madisonville-North Hopkins took a 24-14 lead into the break.

Fort Campbell came up with the first score of the second half. J.P. Perryman ran it in from seven yards out for his second rushing touchdown of the night and cut the lead to 24-20.

On the next possession, the Maroons got their offense going again and drove down the field, Markezz Hightower found the end zone for the third time, this one on a 14 yard run with 1:58 to go in the third. Another two-point conversion put the Maroons up 32-20.

With the game hanging in the balance and the momentum seemingly on the Madisonville sideline, Fort Campbell marched down the field and once again made it a one score game when J.P. Perryman scored from one yard out with 8:34 to go in the game, making it 32-26 and setting up the wild finish.

The two teams combined to put up some really big numbers for the night. The Falcons (395) and the Maroons (558) combined for 953 yards of total offense. Fort Campbell had 189 rushing and 206 passing, while Madisonville had 494 rushing and 64 passing.

Markezz Hightower had a monster night with 257 yards rushing and 4 touchdowns. Kanyon Johnson had 199 rushing yards.

For the Falcons, J.P. Perryman ran for 144 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Johnson was 8-16-0 through the air for Madisonville with one touchdown. Perryman was 10-24-0 with 2 touchdowns for the Falcons.

Ryder Sandridge caught 7 passes for 62 yards and a score for Madisonville. Eric Greene had 4 catches for 134 yards and a touchdown to lead Fort Campbell.

The Maroons did not help their cause any with penalties. Madisonville was flagged 14 times for 131 yards. Fort Campbell was penalized 10 times for 64 yards.

Fort Campbell actually scored one more touchdown than did the Maroons however Madisonville-North Hopkins very nearly pulled this one out with two-point conversions, going 5 for 5.

Fort Campbell (1-3) now gets ready to host Fort Knox next Friday night in the annual Army Bowl game.

Madisonville-North Hopkins (3-1) will look to get back on track hosting Marshall County next Friday night.