Story written by Charles Pulliam
FRANKLIN – Chris Parson had already darted through the Battle Ground Academy defense once before for a touchdown Friday night. Now the Ravenwood junior stood on the BGA doorstep with the go-ahead touchdown in queue with less than 90 seconds to play.
"I saw the linebackers had been crashing a lot and my guy Carter Pace had a great night and they were starting to key on him a lot," Parson said. "The outside linebacker crashed in and I saw the lane and took it."
Parson streaked to his left and scored with 1:27 to play. After the Alec Delperdang PAT, the Raptors held a 35-31 lead that stuck because two plays later, Parker Corley stripped BGA's Sean Williams at midfield and Ravenwood senior Lee Molette scooped up the fumble to seal the win.
Raptors coach Will Hester let out a heavy sigh afterward. Ravenwood was coming off a 56-28 season-opening loss at Montgomery Bell Academy where they coughed up six turnovers. They committed three Friday.
"Well, three more, that's going to make this old coach have a lot of gray hairs," Hester said. "We got a lot of things to work on, but hey, we found a way to win."
Both teams traded turnovers early before Williams put the Wildcats in front with a 2-yard touchdown run. The senior running back continued his hot start to the season by rushing for 180 yards and three touchdowns, including a 37-yarder inside the final minute of the second quarter and a 38-yarder to end the third.
The 37-yard run pushed BGA's lead to 19-7 despite a missed PAT with 37 seconds left in the half. That's when Parson answered with a highlight reel trek through the Wildcats defense to steal some of the momentum for the visitors. Parson scrambled on 4th down from the Raptors 30-yard line and zig-zagged his way 70 yards for the TD to make it 19-14 at the half.
"We didn't play our best football early," Parson said. "We regrouped ourselves and came back out and started turning things around."
"We love playing these tough teams, that's why we schedule these games," Wildcats coach Jonas Rodriguez said. "I'm just proud of our kids. They fought; they battled. It was always pretty, but our guys played really, really hard."
The lead swayed back to Ravenwood early in the fourth when Pace scored on a 2-yard run. The sophomore running back closed with 100 yards on the ground. Parson connected with Molette for the 2-point conversion and the Raptors moved in front 28-25 with 9:17 to play.
The home team pieced together a 7-play, 68-yard drive in response. BGA quarterback Brett Brown capped the drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Xavier Hylton. The PAT missed again, but the Wildcats held a 31-28 lead with 5:23 remaining.
BGA managed to out-gain Ravenwood 416-368, but suffered from 11 flags getting penalized 90 yards. Brown closed 12-of-14 for 117 yards with two touchdowns to lead the Wildcats. He also rushed for more than 70 yards.
"We kind of got that playoff atmosphere feel and fought to the end here," Hester said. "Coach Rodriguez is doing a heck of a job with this ball club and they're playing very, very good. …
"As for our last play, Chris is athletic enough when he gets out in space and you're a couple years away, he's going to wheel himself into the end zone in those situations."
Parson, who rushed for 127 yards, said he was proud of his team for stepping up and rallying for the win.
"Last week didn't go the way we wanted it to go," he said. "But we had a great week of practice and we came out here and got our win. … Everybody showed up tonight when we needed them and I'm proud of everyone."
Ravenwood (1-1) begins Region 7-6A play at home in Week 3 against Franklin (0-2).
The Wildcats head into a Division II-AA Middle Region showdown against defending champion Christ Presbyterian Academy (2-0).
