Golden Elks stun Tigers in 2nd-round clash as injuries, weather clouds contest

After the intermission, the Tigers tacked on another field goal to make it 13-0, but from there, everything changed.

Once Elkton got on the board to make it 13-7, Rising Sun came right back, firing off a long touchdown pass from senior Gannon Russell to senior Sam Ehrhart, who sprinted down the sideline to the end zone for the 19-7 lead.

“It was like 3rdand-15 or -16 and they hit a pass on us where our cornerback got there,” Feeney said, “I mean, he was hitting him as he caught the ball, and the kid [Ehrhart] just made a hell of a play.”

However, Rising Sun’s celebration wouldn’t last long.

On the ensuing kickoff, near the end of the third quarter, Elkton sophomore Hugean Greer took the kickoff to the house, cutting the Golden Elks’ deficit to 1914 on a momentum-shifting special teams miracle.

The comeback was underway.

“That kickoff return just kind of took the wind out of our sails,” added Clem

Vaughan, the Tigers’ head coach, reflecting on the loss, “because it didn’t take any time. It was literally 30 seconds and now it’s 1914.”

Elkton’s comeback was aided by a third-quarter injury to Russell, who slipped and fell on the wet grass as a Golden Elk defender knocked into his hip. From there, he simply wasn’t the same as his mobility suffered.

For most of the season, Rising Sun has been a run-first team, using Russell as their go-to guy in grind-itout situations, often sending him up the middle on QB power play calls.

But, with Russell’s hip injury, the Tigers became, as Vaughan called it, one-dimensional as Ehrhart – who had almost 100 yards on the ground in the loss –became their lifeline.

“It’s unfortunate,”

Feeney said of Russell’s injury. “That kind of altered the game plan a little bit because he’s the engine and if he’s not going, they’re going to struggle a little bit. … Obviously, you want to play a team that’s at 100% and you don’t want anything to get in the way of that.”

Meanwhile, Elkton scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter on a strong run from sophomore Joshua Brill, giving the Golden Elks a 21-19 advantage.

“What we said was, ‘Listen, keep hitting them back. They’re going to keep running, so you’re going to have to just keep hitting them back and wear them down,’” Feeney said. “I felt like we were built to wear them down. It was almost like the same story back in Week 1, so we just kind of persevered in that regard.”

Russell proceeded to throw two interceptions in the second half, including a game-sealing pick-six to Elkton junior Kyle Jackson – who Feeney had moved over to safety against Rising Sun – that put the Golden Elks ahead by the eventual 27-19 final score.

“That kid is just so focused and cares so much about winning and doing his job for his teammates,” Feeney said of Jackson. “And it shows on the field. … He’s a great tackler, then he had the pick-six and that’s the difference.”

It was a crushing blow for Rising Sun, who had secured the region’s top seed and hosted a playoff game for just the second time in school history after a 6-3 regular season.

“It really kind of sucks that it ended that way,” Vaughan said. “I said to the kids, ‘It’s hurting right now, but when you sit back and look at the entire season, it was a really good season.’ … These kids really fought hard, they never quit and I couldn’t be more proud of them. We fought right to the end on Friday night, it just didn’t turn out our way.”

This week, Elkton’s got a third-round date with the top-seeded Dunbar Poets (9-0), a team that Feeney claimed “might be the best team in the state, not even 1A-2A, in the state.” They also happen to be the reigning state champions. “It’ll be a valuable experience,” Feeney said. “We’re going to give it our best. We’re not going to lay down by any means. … We’re going to go out there and we’re going to try to shock the world.”