Sep. 2—CANNONSBURG — Buddy Holly, a musician that most youths are listening to these days, had a song out 60 years ago called "Not Fade Away".

But Friday night at Boyd County a fade pass to the back left corner of the end zone with under 10 seconds to play sealed a 33-28 win for East Carter to improve to 2-1 on the season.

Allusions to 66-year-old rock songs aside, the Raiders controlled the tempo of the game throughout the first half and managed to put themselves in positions throughout the game to make big plays when needed most.

"I think one thing that was really good about our offense tonight was how our o-line did a great job of getting us three or four or five yards at a time," East Carter coach Tim Champlin said. "Then we kept running that little iso play. We saw the safeties creep down and we knew we could go up top and have a chance at it. and our receivers were patient. We told them we wouldn't be able to throw it a lot tonight, but we thought when we did, we'd be able to go for big yardage. I think we were able to do that."

With 3:44 to go in the game, the Raiders had to get to work.

East Carter hit a pair of chunk plays in the first three snaps on the final drive, a 22-yard catch by Mikey Hall, and a 17-yard run from Landon Yoak.

"We've got to do a better job of playing technique up front," Ferguson said of giving up those chunk plays throughout the night. "We're not getting off the field on third down, and we're also continually giving up big plays in the air. So basically everything needs to be worked on defensively."

It put the Raiders into Lions territory on the 39-yard line with 2:37 to play.

From there, East Carter was able to chew up both the clock and the field to get it down to the 4-yard line with 13 seconds left to go.

That's when quarterback Quentin Johnson threw the fade to the corner for Gabe Roberts, who snagged it for the winning touchdown.

"We were out of timeouts there and knew we needed to put the ball in the air," Champlin said. "If we didn't get it, we were going to go for the field goal on the next play. We have a lot of confidence in our young quarterback and in our receivers Gabe Roberts and Mikey Hall. You put it in the hands of your senior wide receiver and just let him do the things he's prepared for all offseason. Put it in his hands and let him make a play."

The Raiders were unsuccessful on the 2-point try, but it meant very little as Boyd County had just seven seconds left, which expired on the kickoff following some futile hook and laterals.

The loss is the second in a row for Boyd County, who has had trouble getting out of their own way at times.

"We shot ourselves in the foot in the first half too much," Boyd County Evan Ferguson said. "It was never just one mistake. It was always back-to-back. Playing good football teams, you can't do that and expect to win. Plus, we have to find a way to get off the field on defense a little more."

Johnson threw for 169 yards, including a pair of touchdowns for East Carter. Hall collected 144 of those yards and averaged over 20 yards per reception.

Yoak collected the yards on the ground, amassing 151 yards and two touchdowns.

Boyd County was led in yardage by Camaron Collins, who had 80 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the night.

The Lions were shut down immediately on the opening drive, going three-and-out. The cause was a combination of a bad snap, a penalty, and a focused East Carter defense.

"They're a really good team," Champlin said of Boyd County. "Obviously the ball bounced our way a couple of times and I felt like there were two really good football teams on the field tonight. So those mistakes Boyd made early allowed us to take advantage of it. That early three-and-out was a big victory for us. I credit our DBs tonight too. A lot of people were giving them down the road this week saying they needed to step up and play big and I think they did that."

East Carter avoided disaster early, recovering their own fumble inside the 1-yard line. Yoak ran it in on the next play to put East Carter on the board first.

Boyd County responded on the next drive with a 44-yard touchdown run by Collins to tie the game at 7-7.

The Raiders would respond quickly, with another short-yardage touchdown run from Yoak.

Boyd County was plagued early with a pair of bad snaps, one of which resulted in a 34-yard loss on a drive that had started for the Lions on the East Carter 20-yard line but resulted in a punt.

Those mishaps, along with quarterback Rhett Holbrook getting banged up to end the first half, had Boyd County going to the locker room with a 14-7 deficit.

To make matters worse for the Lions, East Carter quarterback Quentin Johnson connected on an 80-yard touchdown pass to Mikey Hall to open the second half, putting the Lions down 21-7.

The good news for the Lions was that Holbrook was back in the game for their first offensive drive of the second half.

Holbrook looked unphased by his earlier ailments, peeling off a 16-yard run early on the Lions' first drive of the second half and leading the Lions down to the 5-yard line.

"I can't say enough about how well Rhett played," Ferguson said. "I thought he played a fantastic ball game tonight. He put us in position to score, but we shot ourselves in the foot."

From there, Collins rushed it in from five yards out to pull the margin within 21-14.

After forcing a three-and-out, Boyd County would knot things up 21-all on the next possession after a Dakota Thompson run from nine yards out.

The Raiders responded quickly with a three-yard touchdown pass from Hall, but the Lions were able to block the PAT.

This opened the door for the Lions to take their first lead of the game on the next possession, as Holbrook called his own number for a 2-yard touchdown run.

That and a successful PAT from Maverick Boyd put the score at 28-27 in favor of Boyd County.

E. CARTER 7 7 7 12 — 33

BOYD CO. 7 0 14 7 — 28

FIRST QUARTER

EC— Landon Yoak 1 run (Ryan Carter kick), 4:45

BC— Camaron Collins 44 run (Maverick Boyd kick), 2:18

SECOND QUARTER

EC— Yoak 2 run (Carter kick) 3:15

THIRD QUARTER

EC— Mikey Hall 80 pass from Quentin Johnson (Carter kick) 8:23

BC— Collins 5 run (Boyd kick) 2:18

BC— Dakota Thompson 3 run (Boyd kick) 0:35

FOURTH QUARTER

EC— Hall 3 pass from Johnson (no kick) 6:56

BC— Rhett Holbrook 2 run (Boyd kick) 3:44

EC— Gabe Roberts 4 pass from Johnson (run failed) 0:07

BC EC

First Downs 11 12

Rushes-Yards 30-223 40-237

Comp-Att-Int 7-10-0 10-14-0

Passing Yards 51 173

Fumbles-Lost 2-0 1-0

Punts-Avg. 3-43.6 2-28

Penalties-Yards 6-48 5-55

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Boyd County rushing: Camaron Collins 4-80, Dakota Thompson 14-76, Rhett Holbrook 10-44, Cole Hicks 1-13, Hunter Hedrick 3-10.

East Carter rushing: Landon Yoak 21-151, Ryland Pfau 4-50, Rhett Holbrook 9-21, Ryan Carter 1-9, Gabriel Bernardo 2-5, Quentin Johnson 2-1.

Boyd County passing: Rhett Holbrook 7 of 0 for 51 yards, Dakota Thompson 0 of 1 for 0 yards.

East Carter passing: Quentin Johnson 10 of 14 for 173 yards.

Boyd County receiving: Marcus Brumfield 3-25, Garrett Crum 3-19, Brendan Dawson 1-7.

East Carter receiving: Mikey Hall 7-144, Jared Potter 1-21, Gabe Roberts 1-4, Landon Yoak 1-4.

(606) 326-2658 — wadams@dailyindependent.com