Southern Wayne junior defensive back Sean Moore, right, wraps up Eastern Wayne running back Rahkeem Faison for a short gain during their season-opening game in Dudley on Friday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Southern Wayne sophomore running back Jaylen Bowden (16) bounces outside and breaks away from Eastern Wayne’s Jaelin Langley during third-quarter action Friday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Eastern Wayne’s Jaelin Langley (12) stops Southern Wayne’s Jaylen Bowden for a short gain during first-quarter play Friday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Southern Wayne quarterback Lamontez White, right, tries to break away from Eastern Wayne’s Khyden Alexander (11) and senior tackle Deion’tae Bell (75) during the opening quarter of their game in Dudley on Friday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Southern Wayne junior defensive back Torien Doussaint (2) breaks up a pass to Eastern Wayne wide receiver Charlie Thomas. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Southern Wayne’s E’lla Boykin (20) tackles Eastern Wayne quarterback Izeiah Oates on a second-quarter pass attempt Friday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
Southern Wayne’s Antonio Solice (7) is taken down by a pair of Eastern Wayne defenders during first-quarter action Friday evening. (Rudy Coggins|mountolivetribune.com)
DUDLEY — Southern Wayne ended a decade’s worth of frustration against a cross-county rival Friday evening.
It came down to the final play.
Eastern Wayne had first-and-goal at the Saints’ 5-yard line with 9.9 seconds left in regulation. Trondell Smith took the handoff from quarterback Izeiah Oates, but couldn’t escape E’lla Boykin.
The defensive end exploded through the line untouched and wrapped up Smith for a two-yard loss as time expired. Boykin’s stop preserved a remarkable, 22-20 comeback win that halted a 12-game losing streak against the Warriors.
“We gave up a long throw, but I told them I had them on defense,” said a breathless Boykin. “They ran that play the whole game, the tight end side every time. I was ready for it, guessed the snap count and got the tackle.”
A half-minute earlier, Boykin caught Smith in a one-on-one situation and reeled in a 30-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tez White. White added the two-point conversion.
The Saints led 22-20 with 41.2 seconds to go.
“Just locked in,” Boykin said. “I told Tez ‘I’m gonna be open.’ He threw it, I was open and I locked the ball in, all eyes on it.”
Eastern Wayne built a 20-0 lead.
Middle linebacker Jamen Kornegay recovered a fumble in a pile of tacklers and scrambled 16 yards to the end zone with 3:42 left in the opening quarter.
The Warriors added a pair of second-quarter scores — a four-yard TD scramble from Antonio Houpe and a 41-yard pass from Oates to Smith. The Oates-Smith connection occurred one play after the Saints committed their third turnover of the game.
Unlike previous seasons, the Saints kept faith.
White answered with a 3-yard TD plunge and two-point conversion with 19.5 seconds left before halftime.
“We just had to stay positive, stay together as a team, play how we know how to play football,” White said. “I had to stay focused, start running the ball [and] look down the field at my targets.”
White and Boykin hooked for a 38-yard pass that put the ball at the Warrior 2-yard line. White dove into the end zone on the next play, but the conversion run failed.
EW led 20-14 with 11:05 left in regulation.
Southern Wayne’s defense responded with two fourth-down stops in the red zone. The stalwart efforts set the stage for the dramatic ending in Matt Hine’s debut as head coach.
“My kids battled,” Hine said. “I told them in the huddle after [the game] that I can’t be more proud of the way they came out and didn’t quit. That’s something we’ve talked about since the moment we walked into practice on July 31.
“One of the things we addressed is we’ve seen a lot of times where you take one failure, one bad play and heads go down, body language now stinks. We spotted a good team 20 points and they just refused to quit.”
Drenched with sweat and his uniform covered in grass, White glanced toward the scoreboard.
“This showed everybody that this is not the old Southern Wayne,” said the senior, who led the Saints to a season-opening win for the first time since 2011.
“We’re here [and] it’s something different, not what everybody expected. We’re here this year and it’s going to be like this all season.”
