October 14th, 2016
Sports
Megan Rathbone, Sports writer
On Friday, October 14th, 2016 the annual pisgah tuscola football game took place. Every year this game brings thousands of people from Haywood County and beyond to the football field to support friends, family, their high school, and to watch the best game of the season. This game had to be one of the most surprising of all the ones played in the past few years.
From the first quarter the Tuscola Mountaineers had the lead. The Mountaineers came out of the gates firing, scoring a field goal in the first quarter to put some points in the board, and shortly followed that field goal with a touch down. By the third quarter, the Mountaineers had a 17-0 lead over the Pisgah Black Bears, but this is where the game got interesting. The Mountaineers began to make mistake after mistake like fumbles and off side kicks and Pisgah took advantage of this.
The turning point of the game was when junior, Chase Henson, made an interception and gained much needed yardage for Pisgah. This interception lead to the first touchdown the Bear had had all game and with the field goal that had already taken place, Pisgah was now only down by 7 points. When the end of fourth quarter buzzer sounded, the Bears had tied up the game and the game was sent into overtime. In football, overtime is one more shot for each team to score. Tuscola won the toss for OT and got the first shot at scoring to win the game. Pisgah’s defense was strong as the Mounties tried to score a much needed touchdown and their defense prevailed. The Mountaineers were only able to score a field goal in OT, and now came Pisgah’s turn to try and score.
Pisgah succeeded in getting the ball inside the 20 yard line and on the last run they had, Isaiah Fisher broke the plane and scored a touchdown for the Bears and for the win. This win was the fourth year in a row that Pisgah had beat Tuscola and seniors like Michael Parrott and Trey Morgan can walk away saying that in all their years as Pisgah football players they never lost to tuscola in football.
All in all, the game had a surprising plot twist, filled the stand as well as all the standing room, and continued a beloved rivalry between two respectable schools.
