The Greenville Yellow Jackets came back from being down 22 points in the third quarter to put the game back within one touchdown at 28-20 with 8 minutes remaining. As the Yellow Jackets’ quarterback dropped back to throw, he never saw freshman defensive lineman Conner Milton. Conner stepped up, jumped to catch the ball and intercepted the pass as he went untouched into the end zone for the touchdown that sealed a 48-20 victory for the Rangers.

“[The interception] was a huge play,” Conner said. “It put the game away for our team and I am just glad to come away with the victory.”

In the first quarter, freshman quarterback Hunter Robinson took an electric run all the way to the end zone for the 35-yard score. After the big play, the Yellow Jackets responded with a touchdown of their own, as the Greenville quarterback placed the ball into the end zone from the 20-yard line for his receiver to catch, which the receiver brought down to make the game 7-6. Hunter responded pretty quickly once again, finding success on the ground as he took the ball this time from 15 yards out to give the Rangers the 14-6 lead.

“Our offensive line did a great job blocking for me tonight,” Hunter said. “During the week at practice, all of the coaches were telling me that there was going to be lots of room to make cut backs. I was able to do that on both runs because of my offensive line.”

Entering the second quarter, freshman quarterback Josh Smith was able to break free through the line of scrimmage for another big run, as he took the 30-yard run into the end zone with ease to increase the Rangers lead to 21-6. Josh, along with Hunter, and freshman running backs Tyler and Arash Kordbacheh, combined for a lethal running game. The offensive line of freshman Parker Vredenburg, Stevie Wolf, and Will Richardson played a key role in the success on the ground, as they created gaping holes for their runners to glide through. As they entered the locker room to debrief during halftime, the Rangers held that same 21-6 lead.

As play resumed, the Rangers got another quick score from Tyler, who beat his defenders with his acceleration, put the game in serious doubt for the Yellow Jackets as the lead was stretched to 28-6. However, just when the Rangers thought the game was over, Greenville stormed back. After being down 22 points, Greenville ran a trick play called the fumblerooski which is a play in which the ball is intentionally made to look like it is fumbled. The Rangers could not stop this play, so Greenville kept going back to it. They eventually cut the Ranger lead down to only 28-20 with 8 minutes remaining in the game.

“We lacked the higher end execution we wanted,” Head coach Ty Hallock said. “However, we rallied when it mattered, created some turnovers, and blocked well late in the game to secure the game.”

With a big play needed, Conner came up big in crunch time. His pick-six stopped all of the Yellow Jackets’  momentum and stretched out the lead for the Rangers. The momentum was completely on the Rangers’ side for the rest of the game, as the defensive line for Greenville continued to be dominated. Two more big plays occurred, as Tyler took in another big run for the touchdown, this time from 30 yards out. To add insult to injury, the Rangers ran a reverse, where freshman Jacob Bonnett sprinted for the 25-yard score, giving the final score of 48-20 towards the Rangers.

This game wrapped up the season for both teams, with the freshman team finishing an impressive 8-1 and the JV team finishing 5-4. Some players’ journeys are not done this year. If the varsity team pulls out a win tonight, the JV and freshman team will move up to help on varsity. 

“Overall, I’m very proud of the young men on the football team for a great season and their improvement across the last several weeks,” Hallock said.