Northwest’s loss to Heritage a costly one

Published 12:44 am Saturday, November 1, 2014

TUNNEL HILL — The howling wind, the drizzling rain, the near-freezing temperature.

As sloppy as the weather was Friday night at Bruin Stadium, Northwest Whitfield High School’s football team played about as poorly.

In a game the Bruins desperately needed to win to help their playoff chances, missed opportunities on offense and defense cost them dearly in a 21-19 loss to Heritage-Catoosa on homecoming.

“Any loss is bad but a (loss that affects the postseason race) is even worse,” Bruins senior quarterback Caleb Shiflett said. “I don’t know what it’s going to do with us and the playoffs, so it’s a pretty bad heartbreak.”

What the loss does is take any control the Bruins (4-5, 2-4 Region 7-4A) had out of their hands altogether.

But it doesn’t completely eliminate them from being one of the region’s four teams to reach the Class 4A state playoffs.

With the win, Heritage (5-4, 3-3) remained in the race for the postseason, but it will need to win at home against Gilmer next week and will also need Northwest to win against Southeast Whitfield (6-4, 3-3) to force a three-way tie for the fourth spot.

If that were to happen, Northwest coach Josh Robinson said the fourth spot in the region will come down to a three-team mini-game tiebreaker in which each team would play the other to determine the final spot in the playoffs.

“There’s a couple scenarios where we can get the tie and go into a couple of mini-playoff games,” Robinson said. “But we don’t control our own destiny anymore.”

As sloppy as the Bruins played, their finishing drive was nearly a thing of beauty.

After Northwest allowed Generals running back Carter Beekman to go 14 yards untouched with 1:20 remaining in the game as a strategy to get the ball back, the plan nearly paid off.

Trailing 21-13, Northwest took over possession at its own 20 with 1:12 remaining, but an illegal substitution penalty pushed the Bruins back to the 15 to start the drive. Seven plays later — one of which was a reverse flea-flicker pass for 47 yards — Northwest had the ball at the Heritage 13 with 12 seconds remaining.

Shiflett then found Clay Phillips for a 13-yard touchdown catch with 6 seconds left to cut the Generals lead to 21-19, but Shiflett overthrew a man in the end zone on the two-point conversion and Heritage recovered the onside kick.

“The offense being able to come out and get the ball down the field and execute, it was definitely a positive,” Robinson said of the Bruins’ final drive. “We just didn’t make the throw at the end.”

Northwest managed 362 yards of offense but it seemed to stall when it got the ball inside the Heritage 25. The Bruins set up 25- and 37-yard field goals by Bryan Villa within two minutes of each other in the fourth quarter, the latter cutting the Heritage lead to 14-13 with 5:03 remaining.

Heritage scored its first touchdown with 6:09 left in the first quarter on a 9-yard pass from quarterback Corbee Wilson to Luke Grant after blocking a Northwest punt and taking over at the Bruins’ 37. Shiflett connected with Phillips on a 3-yard pass to tie the game at 7 with 2:04 left in the first half following a Heritage punt the Bruins blocked.

Heritage took a 14-7 lead with 4:19 left in the third quarter on a 6-yard run by Wilson.

Shiflett finished 22 of 43 for 225 yards, while running back Dexter Stamper had 108 yards on 20 carries. Phillips led Northwest with six catches for 66 yards.

Wilson finished 15 of 23 for 176 yards for Heritage, mostly to receiver Tyler Childers, who had seven catches for 124 yards.

Robinson said the weather had nothing to do with the performance of his team, but Shiflett thought otherwise.

“We’re a good throwing offense,” Shiflett said, “… everybody’s hands are numb and the ball was hard and wet, so it played a little bit into it.”

Heritage-Catoosa 21, Northwest Whitfield 19

Heritage 7 0 7 7 — 21

Northwest 0 7 0 12 — 19

First Quarter

HC — Luke Grant 5 pass from Corbee Wilson (Jorge Ramos kick), 6:09

Second Quarter

NW — Clay Phillips 3 pass from Caleb Shiflett (Bryan Villa kick), 2:04

Third Quarter

HC — Wilson 6 run (Ramos kick), 4:19

Fourth Quarter

NW — Villa 25 FG, 7:59

NW — Villa 37 FG, 5:03

HC — Carter Beekman 14 run (Ramos kick), 1:20

NW — Phillips 13 pass from Shiflett (pass failed), 0:06