ROSS TWP. — AJ Sparks had some butterflies floating around in his stomach. But not enough to keep him from making the biggest kick of his career.
“I only perform when I’m confident,” the Ross High School sophomore said. “So, I had to be confident. But of course, I was nervous.”
Sparks knocked through the game-winning field goal from 32 yards out to lift Ross past Edgewood 17-14 in overtime on Friday at Robinson Field.
“I’m so excited that we finally beat Edgewood,” Sparks said. “It’s my second year at Ross, and we’ve never beaten Edgewood. I’m glad we beat Edgewood on my game-winning field goal.”
And the Rams (3-4, 1-0 SWBL Southwestern) celebrated the thrilling victory on Homecoming. Ross snapped a three-game losing streak to Edgewood (1-6, 0-2 SWBL Southwestern).
“We thought this would be a race to 20,” Rams coach Kenyon Commins said. “We were off by 3. But that’s what we thought. Whoever would have done that was going to win this game.
“We have a lot of respect for (Edgewood) defensively. When you watch them offensively, they’re a play or two away at every spot.”
It was Edgewood’s offense that separated things early on. Sophomore quarterback Carter Breedlove threw two first-half touchdown passes that gave the Cougars a 14-0 lead.
Breedlove hit Miller Fall on a 27-yard TD pass in the first quarter and then connected with Roman Smith on a 15-yard strike at the start of the second.
Ross quarterback Emory Severance found the end zone on a 9-yard run to pull it to within 14-7 with a minute remaining in the first half.
“It’s kind of the tale of two halves,” Edgewood coach Trace Reynolds said. “I think the biggest thing is that we relied on the big play in the first half. We hit some big plays, and you go up 14-0 and you feel good about it. But we just struggled a little bit. We couldn’t just sustain that drive. We kind of lived by the big play.
“I’m proud of the way they fought. I hate being a broken record. It is what it is. We just haven’t gotten that play to win one. We had that chance to seal it, and we didn’t. No discredit to Ross. Ross is a tough football team. We knew that coming in. They’re going to play hard. They’re going to play 48 minutes.”
Despite playing from behind through most of the second half, Ross had the momentum. Severance scored his second touchdown of the game on a 3-yard plunge to tie it up at 14-14 with 2:13 left in regulation.
A final heave to the end zone by Breedlove fell short as time expired, sending it to overtime.
The Cougars turned the ball over on the opening possession of overtime on an interception by sophomore Parker Jackson, and that’s when the Rams got in position for Sparks to nail the winner.
Commins credited coordinator Casey Meyers on his team’s defense in the final two quarters and on Edgewood’s offensive overtime possession.
“They decided to play lights out defense in the second half,” Commins said. “The momentum was clearly with the defense. We wouldn’t move the ball and stall out and not finish the drives. So, we were kind of happy where we were because of our defense.”
Junior Brandt Kugler had two interceptions for Ross, which travels to Franklin next Friday night. Edgewood visits Valley View.
