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Agonizing Loss: Northview Chiefs Fall In Regional Final
November 23, 2013
The defending 1A state champ Northview Chiefs suffered an agonizing 34-28 loss on the road to Cottondale Friday night in the Region 1-1A title game.
“It’s tough,” senior quarterback Dalton Tullis said following the game. “We worked hard, but we could have done more stuff than we did. I feel bad right now.”
The Chiefs suffered numerous controversial calls by the officials, including a game changer with 1:36 to go. The Chiefs were up 28-26 when Northview’s Brannon Freeman picked off a Hornet pass. The officials called pass interference, setting up a Hornet drive and the go ahead run for Cottondale.
“I saw things differently,” Northview head coach Sid Wheatley said. “It’s big. It’s big. If a couple of calls had gone the other way it would have been a different outcome in this game.”
And as the clock rolled down to zero and the Chiefs down to the Hornet’s 30 on the final play, Northview fans and coaches saw what should have been a holding call, but no flags were thrown.
But excuses and blame don’t earn — or lose — a trip to the state championship game in Orlando.
“We needed to move the ball a little bit better in the second half. We needed to stop them a little bit better,” Wheatley said. “We’ve got to come back real hungry with these guys that are going to return (next season). We need to remember this feeling and be motivated by it. We need to win.”
And in the end, the Chiefs came up short, and the tears flowed.
“I’m feeling pretty bad right now. It’s heartbreaking to lose like this,” senior Neino Robinson said after the loss. “I think we played the best we could; we made some big plays. My team’s great; I have a great team. We just gave up some big plays in the end, and it come back to hurt us.”
The Chiefs were the first on the board Friday night in Cottondale with 8:40 to go in the first. Tullis was up the middle for a couple of yards and the Chiefs’ first touchdown. A missed extra point attempt, and Northview held a 6-0 lead.
On their next possession, the Chiefs fumbled the ball away with Cottondale recovering on the 10-yard line to set up a touchdown and a 6-6 tie.
In the second, Cottondale answered with a 15 yard touchdown pass to go ahead 12-6. With 7:54 to go in the half, Freeman was in from a couple of yards out and Tullis added the two point conversion run, 14-12 Chiefs. With just over a minute and a half before half time, the Chiefs expanded their lead to 20-12 on a 3-yard TD run from Freeman. On the extra point attempt, Robinson was into the end zone, 22-12 Chiefs.
In the third quarter, the Hornets stung with 8:30 on the clock to close in 22-18 with a 23-yard touchdown pass.
Cottondale scored with 6:01 in the fourth before the Chiefs retook the lead on 2-yard run from Keondrae Lett with 4:22. But Cottondale would come back with 41 seconds remaining to go ahead on a 4-yard run, 34-28.
Pictured top: Northview’s Keondrae Lett reacts emotionally after the Chief’s regional final loss Friday night in Cottondale. Pictured top inset: A missed Northview pass at the Hornet’s 3-yard line with 3.7 seconds remaining in the game. Pictured middle inset: Northview’s Neino Robinson and Coach Sid Wheatley following the loss. Pictured bottom inset: Junior Cameron Newsome gains yardage for the Chiefs. Pictured below: Ladarius Thomas fights off a Hornets defender. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
13 Responses to “Agonizing Loss: Northview Chiefs Fall In Regional Final”
Special thanks to the band and cheerleaders for doing such a great job pumping up the players and fans this year, especially the last few games. We saw first hand Friday night what a difference it can make. Great job!
You guys are awesome in my eyes and i will be there hollering for you again next year.
Don’t focus too much on the Refs. You can’t control them but you can control your self and the players did a great job of that.
We played hard last night we came up short but to all our seniors the next two years us sophomore s will make sure we put extra empheses on Cottondale just for how the acted after the game
Losing is tough and heart breaking, but you had an outstanding season none the less.Still alot to be very proud of. We Royals have suffered loss and heart ache only to come out with a winning season this year , the first since 2008.Bad officials and a team without good sportsmanship can make for the worse game. We had our worse playing Tallahassee McClay.You have a great strong team and we are all proud to see a school from our area do as well as you have . Congratulations Chiefs you did awesome!!
You guys played an awesome game and maintained your class even though bad calls were made!! Keep your heads up, you have everything to be proud of. We all know who deserved to win this game along with several others as well. #Proud Chief Mom
Boys you played great. Sorry for the loss. Feel bad for the seniors. You played yur hearts out
Northview was robbed by the officials once again! It is sad! Northview won in my eyes! You played a great game Chiefs! It is very frustrating to see that we can’t get officials that call a fair game for both sides. I understand the officials aren’t going to see everything, but come on!!!! I felt very cheated when I left the stadium last night… I can only imagine how the team felt!!!!
I agree. Cool pic. And thanks for the coverage northescambia. Today’s mullet wrapper has no pictures from the game. DIdn’t even bother. Didn’t even make the front of the sports page. Kind of a spit on you Northview.
I can’t stop looking at the photo at the top of this story. It’s amazing how it captures the feelings from last night. It is a photo worth 1000 words. Thanks northescambia for covering the Chiefs this year.
Great game Chiefs. In my eyes you won that game. Hold your head high and keep that CHIEFS PRIDE! The officials cost us the game and everyone who was there knows that. I agree with tallyho, what do we have to do to get good officials to call a fair game in this end of the county,state? I am still proud to be a CHIEF FAN!
Something has to be done about the poor officiating at EVERY game this year. I have never seen such bad officials.
Great game Chiefs! This was one of the most heart driven games I’ve seen you all play this season. You’re champs in my eyes! It’s great to be a Northview Chief!
Good game Chiefs. We know that we have to have two extra touch downs for officals when east of the Escambia river. The last home game the chains were moved and the Chiefs have a first down, then the Ref. had them put the chains back just like they could put them back to where they were and OMG we were short. We have had Baker come to play the Chiefs and they bring all the coaches from the miracle strip with to help out the Baker coaches.