By Kris Freeman
White House Football

For three and a half quarters, Friday's game against Station Camp appeared a mirror image of the White House victory at Pearl-Cohn.

Except this time, when White House got up by two scores early with a 10-0 lead, and Station Camp (9-0, 5-0) roared back but trailed on a missed extra point, the Bison came through in the clutch for a 12-10 victory to seal at least a tie for the Region 4-3A championship. White House (6-3, 4-1) can finish no higher than second, even in a tiebreaker, and no lower than third, as they head into Greenbrier for the final week of the regular season.

Station Camp will win the region with a win over Pearl-Cohn, or a White House win over Greenbrier, which would give the Bison the overall record edge if there were a three-way tiebreaker.

The heartbreaking loss for White House was a physical battle in the trenches, won when Station Camp marched 10 plays and 65 yards in the final minutes and Christian Reed kicked a 37-yard field goal with 1:54 remaining to give the Bison a 12-10 lead.

White House opened its final drive with a huge pass from Trox Greenwade to Chad Neal which covered 14 yards, and 15 more were tacked on for a late hit out of bounds. White House had it 1st-and-10 at the Station Camp 39 and Bryan Dixon picked up nine yards on third down. It was the last positive play for the Blue Devils on the night.

Greenwade's pass to the far sideline was overthrown as the receiver slipped on his cutback on second down, and Dixon was swarmed for a loss on third down to put the ball back at the 31. Facing the possibility of a career-long field goal attempt of 48 yards into a stiff breeze, the Blue Devils elected to go for it and Dixon was snowed under near the line of scrimmage on a sweep to the near sideline.

Station Camp and quarterback Matthew Johnson kneeled on the football to run out the final minute of the game.

White House forced a punt on the opening drive of the game and then cashed in the next series when Dixon's 26-yard run helped set up a 42-yard field goal by Zack Trobaugh for a 3-0 lead.

The Blue Devils extended the lead to 10-0 in the second quarter with a 10-play, 81-yard drive to paydirt, as DeMarqus Payne had big runs of 13 and 23 yards. Greenwade found a wide open Chad Neal in the corner of the endzone for a 12-yard touchdown with 5:43 left in the second quarter.

It was at that point in the game, the bounces seemed to quit going White House's way. On the ensuing kickoff by Matthew Gossett, L'Darius Moore was stripped of the football by Caleb Eidson and White House was moments from recovering a crucial turnover. But the ball slipped out of the hands of White House on the bottom of the pile and Station Camp held on to later punt the ball.

Greenwade was hit hard on a second down pass play to Cody Allen which fell incomplete, and on the third down run, Dixon was stopped at midfield and the ball squirted loose, recovered by Shardez Adams at the 50. With 1:07 remaining, the critical point in the game came on a fullback screen for Robert Cervantes for 10 yards and then Eli Harris rushed 15 yards on a double-hand reverse. Johnson spiked the ball and then missed on a fade route to the endzone before Reed came in for a 40-yard field goal, trailing 10-0.

As time counted to three seconds, Reed's kick sailed through the air and planted itself firmly on the crossbar - and bounced through for a 10-3 score at the break.

The teams exchanged punts and Greenwade was intercepted, rolling back to his left and picked off by Garrett Gregory at the Station Camp 30-yard-line and returned to the White House 42. Station Camp promptly turned the miscue into points, including a big 4th-and-1 conversion at the White House 6-yard-line. Robert Cervantes scored on a one-yard plunge, but Reed's kick bounced off the left post and the Blue Devils led 10-9.

The Bison took the ball with 7:42 left in the game after a White House punt and drove for the game-winning field goal. Facing 3rd-and-10 at their own 33, Johnson completed a pass to David Cartwright for 26 yards, and a five-yard facemask penalty moved it to the Blue Devils 36. Seven plays later, the field goal was good.

Station Camp ran 59 plays for 317 yards in the game, with Johnson completing 6-of-15 passes for 115 yards with Cartwright catching three for 78 yards. Greenwade hit 7-of-14 passes for White House for 78 yards and a touchdown and interception.

Payne rushed 15 times for 99 yards to lead all players and Hunter Tope carried 17 times for 77 yards for the Bison.

Michael Barrett led the White House defense with 11 tackles, followed by Chad Neal with 10 and Adam Wiss with nine. Wiss helped stop a huge fourth down by Station Camp in the fourth quarter which might have been the play of the game had the Blue Devils hung on.

White House will travel to Greenbrier for a critical matchup. The Bobcats are fighting with Macon County and Sycamore for the fourth and final playoff spot in the region and are coming off a surprising upset at the hands of Macon County, 24-21.

Box Score (Final)

Station Camp vs White House (10-26-2007 at White House, TN)