Tigers ousted by Briarwood

Hartselle’s Austin Borden (60) and Blair Sittason walk off the field while Briarwood Christian players celebrate at J.P. Cain Stadium Friday after the Lions beat Hartselle 24-21 in the Class 5A semifinals.

Briarwood Christian was no match for Hartselle’s experience defensively.
It didn’t matter much to sophomore receiver Daniel Robert, who caught three touchdown passes to lead Briarwood Christian to a 24-21 overtime victory over top-ranked Hartselle Friday night in the Class 5A state semifinals at J.P. Cain Stadium.
The Lions’ Wilson Whorton, who missed a field goal attempt earlier in the game, nailed a 19-yarder in overtime to send Briarwood Christian to the state championship game seeking their fourth state championship.
“Briarwood just made one more play than we did and that’s why they’re moving on,” said Hartselle head coach Godsey said. “I’m so proud of our guys. They played their hearts out. They had a lot of opportunities tonight to have shut (it) down and they chose not to do that.”
“The kids played their hearts out. They found ways to make plays, found ways to get back in the ball game.”
Hartselle finished its season with a 12-2 record – equalling the school mark for wins set by three other Tiger teams, including the 1980 and 1981 squads that lost in state championship games.
Briarwood will face Spanish Fort on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium on the Auburn University campus.
“It hurts right now. It hurts more when you lay it on the line,” Godsey said. “It hurts more when you go for it. When you don’t go for it and you take the easy way out, it doesn’t hurt as bad. When you lay it on the line and go for it, it hurts.”
Trailing by seven points in the fourth quarter, Will Lang threw a 52-yard touchdown pass to Blake Slayton with 3:51 remaining in the game.
The touchdown tied the game and sent it to overtime.
“It’s been like that all year long,” Godsey said. “When we needed it, somebody was always stepping up with the big catch or a big kick.”
Lang threw an interception into traffic near the goal line on third down to end the Tigers’ first possession in overtime.
Matthew Furtato picked off the pass – just the third interception thrown by Lang this season – to end the Tigers’ possession.
“How many plays has Will made for us this year?” Godsey asked. “That one just didn’t go our way. That’s the way it goes sometimes. We’re trying to win a football game and we’re inches away from getting that touchdown.”
Four plays later, Whorton nailed the 19-yarder to leave Hartselle players stunned as the Lions began to celebrate.
Hartselle scored the game’s first touchdown when Lang found Malcolm Fossett on a 14-yard strike with 5:13 remaining in the opening quarter to cap an 80-yard drive that had the Tigers chewing up yardage against the Lions’ defense.
Lang finished the night 24-of-35 for 246 yards. The two-year starter finished up his prep career with 5,373 yards and 46 touchdowns through the air.
The 7-0 lead held until Briarwood Christian’s Ben Craft put the Lions on the board with a scoring strike to Robert.
“We got it moving and we were able to stay ahead of the chains,” Godsey said. “To stay ahead of Briarwood, you’ve got to stay ahead of the chains. If you get behind the chains, that defensive front is going to tee off on you and that’s kind of what happened to us after that.”
The Lions’ two-point conversion was stopped by Hartselle’s defensive front to keep the Tigers in front 7-6.
Fossett, who finished the season with 1,488 yards rushing, answered with a 1-yard run just over two minutes later to push the margin to 14-6.
Craft and Robert teamed up again on a touchdown late in the third quarter and the Lions added a two-point conversion with an unbalanced line to tie the game at 14-14.
“We made it very tough on them in the first half and they made some adjustments and were able to move the ball in the second half,” Godsey said.
Briarwood got its first lead with 8:44 remaining in regulation when Robert hauled in another touchdown pass. The 19-yard pass put the Lions in front 21-14.
“A lot of people might have thought we were dead in the water there,” Godsey said. “These kids just found a way to get it to overtime. It’s just the way this team is and that goes back to the program which goes back to the kids.
“I know how far we came as a team. I’m okay with that because I know how hard these guys worked. One day they will be able to look back on this with a lot of smiles. This team did a lot of things for a lot of people, not just winning football games.”