Late touchdown lifts South Terrebonne past Berwick

All signs seemed to be pointing toward a Berwick victory in Friday’s game at South Terrebonne.
The Panthers had survived a sloppy first half and came out of the gate after halftime with a bang, scoring on the third quarter’s first play and again by the halfway point of the quarter.
But a fourth-quarter rally by South Terrebonne, capped by a game-winning 23-yard touchdown pass from Gators quarterback Trey Gautreaux to tight end Cameron Hebert with 36 seconds left, broke a 28-all tie and stunned the Panthers as South Terre-bonne rallied for a 36-28 victory.
The Panthers (1-2) took the lead on their first possession of the night when Josh Jones capped a long drive with a 10-yard touchdown run to give Berwick the lead. Seth Canty’s extra point made it 7-0 with 4:58 remaining in the first quarter.
Berwick led 7-6 after the opening period before falling behind 14-7 at halftime thanks to Gators tailback Terrance Sims’ performance, and some self-inflicted Panther wounds.
On their second possession of the game, Berwick drove to the South Terrebonne 11-yard line before quarterback Mitchell Sanford was intercepted at the goal line by the Gators’ David Lirette.
The Panthers also at-tempted a fake punt that went nowhere, giving South Terrebonne (2-1) excellent field position in Berwick territory.
From there, the Gators rode the blistering Sims, whose 9-yard touchdown run put South Terrebonne up, 14-7.
Berwick also missed a 25-yard field goal attempt as time expired in the first half.
By the third quarter, though, the Panthers ap-peared on their way to seiz-ing control of the game.
Jones took the opening snap of the half and ran around left end for a 60-yard touchdown. Canty’s extra point tied the game.
With 5:52 left in the third, the Panthers retook the lead when Sanford threw a 34-yard touchdown strike to receiver Barrett Hover. Canty’s extra point gave Berwick a 21-14 advantage.
But more Sims and more unforced Berwick errors stopped the Panthers from pulling away.
Sims rushed for another long run to set up a four-yard touchdown run by Colby Chelette that brought the Gators to within 21-20 with 1:15 left.
Berwick answered with a touchdown run by Jones — his third of the night — for the Panthers’ biggest lead at 28-20.
It was also their last lead.
Sims’ third touchdown, a 26-yard scamper, and a successful two-point conversion tied the game at 28 with 6:22 left.
Berwick came right back and marched into South Terrebonne territory, but two costly holding penalties killed the drive. The most significant one came on a fourth-down play from the Gators’ 41-yard line with around 4:30 remaining when a long, would-be touchdown run by Jones was called back after a holding call at the 45. The call backed Berwick so far they had no choice but to punt.
That eventually led to Gautreaux’s game-winning touchdown pass. Before his completion to Hebert in the final seconds, the Gators’ quarterback had been limited to just 2-of-4 passing for 8 yards all night.
“This was the first time we put in this play,” Hebert said of the score. “They’d tried to get the ball to me earlier, but penalties or sacks would hold me back. But this time, I was open.
“The coaches saw in the press box that they weren’t covering me,” Hebert added. “The play was I was supposed to break off the corner, so I knew the safety would be a problem. But I knew I had it, and I knew I could out-jump him. The whole night we’d been watching where they’d been covering me, and thank-fully, it happened right there on that play.”
Sims finished the night with 147 yards on 15 carries, and Chelette and Jonathan Smith combined for 124 yards rushing.
“We had a couple of oppor-tunities to put the nail in the coffin, and we let them get some big plays and extend some drives,” Berwick Coach Mike Walker said. “We weren’t able to make the crucial plays when we needed to.”
Despite the Gators’ anemic passing numbers going into the final drive, Walker said he was anticipating a pass at some point.
“I said to watch the tight end,” Walker said. “Our guy was in a pretty good position. Their guy just made a play, and our guy didn’t. Hats off to them. That was the right time to go to that play. It was a good play call. It was a good game.”
Jones was the star of the night for Berwick’s offense, rushing 23 times for 174 yards and three touchdowns.
The Panthers ended the night with 310 yards of offense and 13 first downs. South Terrebonne had 15 first downs and 351 yards of offense.