Albany Herald

Photo by Danny Aller

BACONTON -- And the crowd went wild.

That was the scene Saturday night in Mitchell County as the Baconton Charter football team -- in its first season playing a varsity schedule -- finally gave the home fans a reason to go nuts as the Blazers struck last in a see-saw game with Stewart County to win, 38-37, for their first legitimate victory of their inaugural campaign. Baconton technically has a 'W' on its record after playing Pelham, which routed the Blazers in that game, but then the Hornets later had to forfeit the win for using an ineligible player.

"I don't even count that game because it didn't feel like a real win," Blazers coach Glenn Palmer said. "This was our first real win. This was a relief to finally get one under our belts."

But it didn't come easy.

Baconton needed two late interceptions -- one by James Davis and one by Marcus "Tank" Allen -- to walk away as winners as Allen's came on Stewart's final drive to seal it, while it was Davis' pick with under three minutes to play which set up the final Baconton drive and go-ahead score.

And boy was it a doozy.

Trailing 37-30, Baconton drove the field and quarterback Brock Pinson -- the Blazers' star pitcher on the baseball team who was the team's center a week ago before being moved to QB before Saturday's game -- found tight end Ben Willis in the end zone from 12 yards out to make the score 37-36.

Then came the quandary.

"We didn't know what to do. We'd gone for two all night and all the kids were saying we should do it again," Palmer said. "James said we should try and QB sneak behind Brock and that the guys would (move the pile) and get him into the end zone. And that's exactly what they did."

Palmer said the "800 or so fans on hand just went nuts" when Baconton (2-5) pulled ahead for good, then the crowd "went even crazier" when Allen intercepted the pass to end it.

"It was the interception heard round the world," Palmer joked.

Davis finished with three scores -- one receiving, two rushing -- and Pinson and Willis scored once. Baconton is off next week.