The Woodland Wildcats (4-3, 1-3) defeated the Hiram Hornets 14-13 on Friday night to grab their first region win of the year.
Woodland and Hiram were scoreless in the game’s first 24 minutes, but both had big plays that many thought would be difference-makers. Woodland had a snap sail over its punters head to give Hiram the ball at the Woodland 11-yard line to set up what many thought would be the game’s first points. A few plays later, Eli Jernigan recovered a fumble to thwart the Hiram attack.
In the third quarter, everything appeared to come up Woodland. Asa James scored on a 72-yard touchdown run. On Hiram’s following drive, Christian Vera returned a fumble 99 yards for another Wildcat touchdown. With just over seven minutes left in the third quarter, Woodland appeared primed and ready to create some playoff madness within its region.
Then Julius Thomas intercepted a pass for the Hornets and returned it into the end zone for a score and halt madness within the region. Another touchdown and blocked PAT would hold the lead just one point for the Wildcats, who needed to find 11 more with under four minutes left in the game to force an interesting three-way tie for the region’s final playoff berth.
Woodland is set to play Blessed Trinity next week with kickoff set for 7:30. A win would give Woodland the No. 4 seed in the region, while a loss would send Hiram to the state playoffs.