Jeff Davis spoils EHS Homecoming with late touchdown

Enterprise may have celebrated its Homecoming festivities prior to the football game Friday, but Jeff Davis was the team dancing at the end. 

The Volunteers scored with two seconds remaining to earn a 40-34 win against Enterprise.

“I feel for the guys,” Enterprise coach Kevin Collins said. “I think they played hard. We just had things that didn’t go our way. I’m not satisfied with just playing hard. That’s not my responsibility as this coach. (I’ve got to) make sure that our playing hard turns into playing well.”

Jeff Davis’ final score capped a 12-play drive and a six-point comeback. Enterprise led 34-28 early in the fourth quarter, but Jeff Davis scored on each of their final two possessions. 

“I told them that as long as we kept our heads about ourselves, and we stuck together, we’d be OK,” Jeff Davis coach Vincent Wiggins said. “That’s what we did.”

The loss negated an impressive Enterprise comeback. The Wildcats trailed 22-7 late in the second quarter, but narrowed the margin before halftime. Rhett Harrelson’s 28-yard touchdown pass to Manny Jones cut the lead to 22-13. 

Shaq Solomon lit a spark under the Enterprise defense right after the break, intercepting a pass and returning it to the Jeff Davis 7-yard line. Three plays later Harrelson sprinted into the end zone on a 4-yard run. John Evans’ extra point put the Wildcats within two points at 22-20. 

Jeff Davis answered with a 65-yard scoring drive to go up 28-20, but Solomon returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown. 

After the teams traded punts, Enterprise ended up with good field position and took advantage of it. The Wildcats needed to drive just 36 yards to take the lead. Willie Curry covered the final 16 yards of that with a scoring run. Harrelson passed to Jalen Hook for the two-point conversion and a 34-28 lead. 

The lead was brief, though, as Jeff Davis scored on its next two drives to win the game. 

Enterprise got off to a slow start, while Jeff Davis had no trouble scoring. After forcing Enterprise into a three-and-out, the Volunteers marched down the field and scored a touchdown. The extra point was blocked, leaving Jeff Davis leading 6-0. 

Enterprise took a brief lead on Hooks’ 1-yard run and Evans’ extra point to go up 7-6, but it was short-lived. Jeff Davis answered with an 81-yard touchdown run and a 68-yard scoring drive to lead 22-7 late in the half. 

Jeff Davis’ fast start was no surprise to Wiggins. 

“We expected to come down here to win,” he said. “There was no doubt about it. We weren’t coming down here conceding anything. We came to win.”

Collins credited Jeff Davis with the fast start, but also placed a lot of the blame on the Wildcats’ first-half performance. 

“Some of it was (Jeff Davis) making plays,” he said. “Some of it was, if you go through and look at it, we had some third-down opportunities and didn’t get off the field, we missed an opportunity for a field goal in the first half, we had a turnover. When you get in a game like this, and you go back and analyze how close you were to either what puts you in position to win or what takes you out of position to win, those things usually add up, those four or five plays. That’s what makes it tough.”

Harrelson completed 15-of-25 passes for 152 yards and a touchdown. He also led Enterprise with 70 yards rushing. Clark Quisenberry had 55 yards on five catches. Rashad Hayes finished with 33 yards on two catches. Curry had 41 yards on nine carries. Hooks finished with 26 rushing yards. 

The loss was Enterprise’s first Homecoming loss since 2002, when the Wildcats lost 28-14 to Vigor. Enterprise also lost Homecoming games in 2001 (22-10 to Dothan) and 2000 (20-14 to Smiths Station in double overtime). The Wildcats lost 22-8 to Carver on Homecoming in 1995. 

Enterprise drops to 2-3 with the loss. The Wildcats return to Class 6A, Region 3 play Sept. 30 with a game at Smiths Station. 

“How you handle these adverse situations is sometimes more important than the outcome,” Collins said. “We still have our goals in sight region-wise. We’ll take it, and if we mature and learn from this situation, then hopefully we’ll be able to use it and help us when we get back to region play next week.”