Chattahoochee Overcomes Huge Lead to Beat Lassiter

Down by 17 points midway in the 3rd quarter, the Chattahoochee Cougars scored an unanswered 28 points to pull out a dramatic 35-32 win over the Lassiter Trojans Friday night at Cougar Stadium.

A packed house saw the Cougars score twice in just 69 seconds on two interceptions, both returned for touchdowns late in the third period, to take a 28-24 lead.

The excitement came after Chattahoochee's big horse, 220-pound running back Gary Grace, blasted up the middle, pirouetted his way around one tackler, faked another completely out of his cleats, and scored from 39 yards out to narrow the score to 24-14 in favor of the Trojans.

On the first play following the kickoff, Chattahoochee senior defensive lineman Stephan Howard picked off Lassiter quarterback Schuyler Vaughn's pass and rumbled untouched 15 yards to score, closing the gap to 24-21.

It only took one minute and nine seconds for Chattahoochee's defense to score again. With Lassiter working from its own twenty-yard line, Vaughn's pass was deflected by Cougar defensive back Justin Lee.

Huge Chattahoochee defensive lineman Justin Smith snatched the ball before it hit the ground, and the six-four 275-pounder lumbered in for the score, putting Hooch on top for the first time all night, 28-24.

Midway in the fourth quarter Chattahoochee quarterback Brendan Cross capped off a six-play 66-yard drive with a nifty fake to Grace that completely fooled the Trojan defense. With Grace drawing a host of tacklers, Cross slithered in for the score from three yards out to put the Cougars up 35-24 with five minutes to go in the game.

Lassiter rode the arm of quarterback Vaughn, who passed for 320 yards and four touchdowns in the game. His fourth TD came with 25 seconds left to play when he found Xavier Morgan from 5 yards out. The two point conversion made it 35-32. Lassiter went for the onside kick following the touchdown, but the Cougars' Kevin Martin plucked the line drive out of the air and immediately fell to the ground, curled up with the ball, ending any hopes of a Lassiter comeback. With the win, Chattahoochee improves to 3-1 on the season.

After the game, Chattahoochee head coach Terry Crowder praised his team for the come from behind win. Sort of.

"I'm proud of you guys for doing that. There aren't many football teams that could pull that one out, but listen to me, you all know as well as I do, they did not get our best effort."

Listening to the rest of Crowder's post game pep talk, you would never know the Cougars won the game.

"We've got to come back from this," he said, obviously referring to Vaughn's ability to pick apart the Cougar secondary. "Enjoy this, but know a performance like this is not going to win the region," he emphasized.

When asked what the Cougars planned to work on this week, Crowder did not hesitate. "Pass defense."

Next up the 2-2 Sprayberry Yellow Jackets, 27-7 winners over Centennial, visit the Hooch on Friday night.