By Jason king
Leader sporswriter
North Pulaski coach Terrod Hatcher will accept no moral victories.
That was evident moments after the Falcons’ closer than expected, 20-6 defeat by Monticello in the season finale at Falcons Field on Thursday.
Hatcher, in his first season as head coach and the youngest coach in the state at 23, was in no mood to compliment his team’s gritty performance against an opponent that had crushed the Falcons a combined 104-22 in the previous two meetings.
The Billies (7-3, 5-2 5A-Southeast) dominated the game despite three red-zone turnovers and hung on to the No. 3 seed out of the 5A-Southeast with some help from Mills’ 14-9 victory over White Hall on Thursday.
The Falcons (1-9, 1-6) kept themselves in the game with a flex defense that gave up 252 yards rushing but was opportunistic with turnovers. North Pulaski got its only score with just over five minutes left to play to make it 14-6, but the Billies answered to end the scare.
“We had breakdowns, breakdowns, breakdowns,” Hatcher said. “We have to get better. We always break down on big plays, and we can’t have it. We’ve got to figure out how to win. That’s the deal — they don’t know how to win yet.”
Defensive lineman Schyler Spencer gave North Pulaski a chance when he recovered a fumble by Monticello’s Trey Hawkins at the Falcons 25-yard line with 10:07 left to play and the Falcons trailing 14-0.
Junior quarterback Shyheim Barron and the North Pulaski offense had been stifled all night by a swarming Billies defense, but the Falcons put together a drive that went 75 yards in 12 plays, ending with an 18-yard touchdown run by Dwaine Davis on a reverse sweep with 5:13 remaining.
Monticello blocked Austin Allen’s extra-point attempt to keep it at 14-6.
Billies senior quarterback Marcie Roberson put the team on his back in the final minutes, leading a 55-yard drive that ate up all but the final 1:38. The Falcons defense had the Billies at fourth-and-nine at the North Pulaski 18, but Roberson drew the defenders to the right side with an option reverse and took it in himself for the final score.
“When we need big plays, we can’t make them,” Hatcher said. “That’s what makes a team right there; when you make big plays during crunch time, that’s the most important thing and we can’t do it. Right now, it’s not a winning effort, and we’ve got to get better.”
Hawkins, the Billies’ senior running back, turned in a workhorse night with 24 carries for 122 yards, and had three receptions for another 50 yards. One of those catches came on an 18-yard pass from Roberson with 1:58 left in the first quarter to give Monticello a14-0 lead, which held up until the last five minutes.
“I didn’t think that we were real focused before the football game,” Monticello coach Johnny McMurry said. “We kind of played that way, but you have to hand it to those guys. The coaches did a great job of getting them ready to play, and we knew that they played hard. And they played hard tonight.
“I was proud of our team. We didn’t play our best football, but we got it done at the end and got a win.”
The Billies controlled both clock and field position in the second half, only to give the ball away repeatedly. Monticello’s first drive of the second half went 65 yards in 15 plays and ate 7:30 off the clock, but Roberson struggled with a snap on first-and-goal at the Falcons 9.
Nick Dunn recovered for North Pulaski, which punted back to the Billies at its 48 after three plays.
“That’s something we haven’t done lately,” McMurry said.
“We’ve been pretty good about not having turnovers. We won the football game — the thing that we’ve got to do now is come back this next week and get focused.”
Barron completed 7 of 18 passes for 100 yards with one interception, and overcame negative 31 rushing yards in the first half that came because of a high snap and a pair of Monticello sacks
The Falcons finished with 101 rushing yards, led by Derrick Hart’s seven carries for 58 yards.
