Rabbs close out season with, 27-20, win

By Tim Emmons
temmons@casscountynow.com

Atlanta closed out its 2016 football season earlier than expected, but did go out swinging as they topped Spring Hill 27-20 last Friday night.
With tough losses against Gilmer and Gladewater in district the turning point in the season was the opening district loss to Pittsburg.
With the passing of Friday no Cass County teams made the playoffs for the first time in a long time.

First Quarter
Atlanta started out slow against the Panthers and went four-and-out on the first drive.
Spring Hill came out fired up on its first possession going from the 35 to the Atlanta 19 in two plays.
Three plays and a few penalties later and the Panther’s field goal kick trotted on to attempt a 49-yard field goal.
Aside from seeing if the kid could make it, I would take the Greg Young return for a touchdown after the attempt was blocked.
Jaime Campos nailed the poiint after and Atlanta was up 7-0 with 9:03 left in the opening frame.
Spring Hill began its next possession from the 18 and 13 plays later the Panthers were into the endzone for a score.
The PAT was successful and the score was knotted at 7-all with 4:57 left in the first quarter.
Atlanta’s offense struggled to make big plays as their opponenets had, and ended up punting the ball away with just under three minutes on the game clock.
The quarter ended with Spring Hill driving.

Second Quarter
Just eight seconds into the new quarter and the Panthers had to punt the ball away.
After another Atlanta punt from deep in its own territory, Spring Hill received the ball at the Rabbit 34.
Nine plays later and the Panthers were back in the endzone for another score.
The PAT gave them a 14-7 lead with 7:45 left in the second stanza.
After the two teams traded possessions, Atlanta opened things up a bit.
On the second play of the drive from the 31, Jawan King took the handoff from Layton Henson and bounced 31 yards to the Spring Hill 38-yard line.
After a couple of runs by Nick Cooper and another short run by King, Henson took the ball 19 yards to paydirt.
The PAT made it 14-14 with 2:15 showing on the clock.
The Rabbs received a gift in the way of a fumble on Spring Hill’s first play from scrimmage, and immediately went to work.
King picked up a huge amount of yards on the first play but the Rabbs were flagged for holding.
After two power runs by King and Cooper, Henson connected with Kelton Young on a screen and the fast running back scampered 30 yards to the 1.
Henson dove across the goal line for another score with five seconds left.
The PAT was blocked but the Rabbs were up 20-14 going into the half.

Third Quarter
Spring Hill’s netx drive stalled and Atlanta got the ball back at the 8:15 mark.
The Rabbs moved the ball well on the next drive with a 14-yard run by Henson, a 25-yard pick up by Young and an eight yard gain by King.
On first down from the Spring Hill 36, Atlanta fumbled the ball which was picked up and returned to the Atlanta 28.
Two plays later and Spring Hill was in the end zone for another TD.
The PAT was blocked and the score was tied at 20-all with 6:02 left in the third quarter.
On the ensuing kickoff Young had a kickoff return for a touchdown called back on a penalty, and the Rabbit offense went four-and-out.
Spring Hill began to move the ball over midfield on its next drive and into Rabbit territory, but on fourth-and-2 Desmond Robinson hit the ball carrier for a big loss and a turnover on downs.
The Rabbs ended the quarter facing fourth-and-22.

Fourth Quarter
This quarter is where tempers flared.
After the Rabbs punted the ball,  Spring Hill darted from the 36 to the Rabbit 46 in one swoop.
Four plays later Atlanta came away with a big stop on fourth down, and what had been building for a few quarters boiled over as Spring Hill players jumped on a few rabbit players and the benches cleared.
After the Rabbit Tornado left Panther players laying all over the field, only four players (two from each team) were ejected.
Atlanta, with a renewed fire, took the ball from the 46 to the Panther 44 before Henson hit Trin Taylor on a 41-yard pass play to the 3-yard line.
From there Henson scored his third rushing touchdown of the contest.
The PAT put the Rabbs ahead 27-20 with 7:45 left in the game.
The Panthers took a lot of hard licks from there on out and never came close to the end zone again.
Atlanta kneeled the ball to end the game and their season.
In the game Henson passed for 67 yards and rushed for 105 and three scores.
King had 79 yards, Cooper posted 37 and Young added 30.
Taylor led the receivers with 41 yards on just one reception.
On the season Henson finished with 1,087 passing yards with 10 touchdowns and amassed 489 yards on the ground with 10 TDs.
The sophomore King finished with the most rushing yards at 571 with four TDs, Young had 437 with five scores, Cooper 420 with five TDs and Dantay Casey had 139 with three TDs.
Trin led in receiving on the year with 349 yards and three scores, Hunter Roberts added 280 with thee TDs, Desmond Webster recorded 236 with two TDs and Ken Butler had 113 with a touchdown.