McLean County scored three touchdowns in less than four minutes to turn a tie football game into a 36-20 Cougar win at Trigg County on Friday.
With the win, McLean secured the No. 3 seed in the postseason, while Trigg County will miss the postseason for a second straight year.
Trailing 14-6 late in the second quarter, Trigg County tied the game when Caden Scott hit Peyton Williams on a 17-yard touchdown with 1:50 left. Connor Bellows added the two-point conversion to even the contest.
McLean County answered with a 10-play, 67-yard drive, scoring on the first half’s final play when quarterback Ayden Rice found a wide-open Kam Walters for a 17-yard touchdown with no time on the clock. The score and conversion gave the Cougars a 22-14 lead at the half and marked the second straight week that Trigg’s opponent scored on the final play of the first half.
The first two minutes of the second half proved to be pivotal for both teams. Trigg fumbled the kickoff to start the quarter, and McLean answered with a quick 5-play, 32-yard scoring drive, capped by a 4-yard run by Aden Bolden.
The Wildcats again fumbled the ensuing kickoff and set the Cougars up for a 45-yard touchdown run by Walters with 8:56 left that put them ahead 36-14.
Trigg answered on the next drive when Scott found Williams down the seam for a 43-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 36-20. But the Wildcats would go punt-interception-downs on their next three drives and McLean County was able to run out the clock for the win.
The defensive objective for both teams was to stop the other’s leading rusher. Trigg County’s Davaree Gude, who came into the game averaging 137 yards, had 76 yards on 14 carries with no scores.
Bolden, who paced McLean’s wing-T offense with 133 yards a night, had 94 yards on 22 carries. He did score a pair of touchdowns.
McLean did get 123 yards on 11 carries from Walters. He scored three touchdowns – two rushing and one receiving – and hauled in three passes for 52 yards.
The Cougars ran 56 plays and had 376 yards. 301 came on the ground on 48 carries.
Rice was 3-of-6 passing for 39 yards and added 46 rushing yards on 11 carries.
Scott was 10-of-18 passing for the Wildcats for 160 yards. He threw three touchdowns – two to Williams and a 10-yard strike to Ahmari Alexander in the first quarter. Williams finished with six catches for 119 yards.
Trigg County ran 36 plays and gained 232 yards.
After a disastrous 16-penalty performance in a five-point loss to Hopkins County Central last week, the Wildcats cleaned things up a bit with eight flags for 62 yards. McLean was flagged five times for 45 yards.
McLean County (6-3, 3-2) clinches the three seed in Class 3A District 1 and will travel to Adair County in the first round of the playoffs.
McLean County evened the all-time series with Trigg County at 4-4 with its third straight win.
While Trigg County will drop to Class 2A next year, so will McLean County and Hancock County. However, Trigg County will be in the same district as Mayfield, Caldwell County, Crittenden County, Fort Campbell, and Todd County Central.
Trigg County (3-6, 1-4) will close out its season next week at home against Caldwell County in the annual 139 Bowl at Perdue Field.
