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Thompson’s defense led the way in a tightly-contested duel on ESPN2, but after offensive struggles led to an overtime loss, Mark Freeman and the Warriors hope to use the test as a lesson. (For the Reporter/Jeremy Raines)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

ALABASTER – With a national audience on ESPN2 locked on Warrior Stadium, the Thompson Warriors and Grayson Rams engaged in a war of attrition with neither defense giving much of an inch.

In the end, it was the Warriors who gave first, allowing a two-point conversion in overtime to fall 15-14 to Georgia’s reigning 6A semifinalists on Thursday, Aug. 22 in a game the Warriors believe will only help them achieve their ultimate goal.

“We played a physical football team with a lot of speed, so we’re going to be prepared better the next time than we are this time for it,” Thompson coach Mark Freeman said. “I just think that game right there helps us. Go back two years ago to Buford, they beat us 38-7 and we went on and we got better every game and won the state championship that year. That’s a good football team now. So, I think we got better. I’m proud of our kids and proud of our coaches.”

Grayson burst out of the gate with a fast-paced no-huddle attack that asked a lot of questions from Thompson’s defense. The Warriors nearly halted the momentum after Trent McCorvey recovered a fumble with the Rams nearing the goal line, but the runner was ruled down by contact.

Shortly after that, Joel Bradford punched it in from the 2-yard line to give Grayson a 7-0 lead that it held all the way through halftime.

Thompson still had some encouraging first down plays throughout the first half. Angel Jones made a big tip drill catch midway through the first quarter, and with about seven minutes left in the second, Trent Seaborn strung together a solid series of short passes to Brooks Byars and Jones.

However, those plays were quickly followed by stops that forced punts from John Alan McGuire.

The Warriors defense continually came up big when it was needed. While Grayson got more consistent first downs, Thompson got key stops, including a pair of third down sacks from Jared Smith, to keep it a one-score game at the half.

Freeman said they knew to expect tempo out of the gate from the Rams and he was proud of his coaches for adjusting once again to the speed of the game after that.

“Our coaches have always done a great job over the history of things, when we play teams and that first drive, we’re not ready, they come back, they make adjustments,” Freeman said. “They made adjustments at halftime and like I said, our defense played really good. If our defense can play like that all year, we’ll have a good football team.”

Thompson’s offense tried to gain momentum to start the half with a pass to Trey Knight for a first down and a roughing the passer penalty later in the drive, but that proved to be the only Warriors first down of the quarter.

On the next drive, the defense adjusted quickly after a first-down run from the Rams to start the series, and an offensive holding penalty followed by a false start tanked the drive to force the punt.

When Thompson went three-and-out once again immediately after, the team needed a spark. Luckily for them, the defense provided it.

After McGuire pinned Grayson deep, McCorvey honed in on a Rams receiver for a quick and emphatic stop on first down, setting the stage for an even bigger play.

Grayson threw it to the outside, and the receiver was quickly met by Vini Pires who forced the ball loose toward the sidelines. Anquon Fegans then caught the ball on the run and finished off the scoop-and-score touchdown to tie the game at 7-7 with 4:45 left in the third.

The defenses continued to dominate from there as neither team got much momentum for the next few series.

On Thompson’s next offensive play, Grayson jumped the route and caught a diving interception off Seaborn with 2:25 to go in the third. However, just like the Warriors, the Rams offense got stopped again thanks to a forced incompletion and had to punt.

Grayson got the chains moving on the ground to start the fourth quarter during a four-minute drive, but the Warriors held strong and forced a turnover on downs with seven minutes to go.

While the teams continued to trade punts for much of the fourth quarter, Thompson caught a big break after the Rams converted a third-down run. After Grayson tried to pass again, Demonte Tabb came up with the interception to give the Warriors the ball with under a minute left.

Seaborn was able to pick up a first down on his feet, but a pair of incomplete deep passes to Fegans and Jones forced Thompson to first go out for a 59-yard field goal with four seconds left before sending the offense out to take the knee and send the game to overtime.

Freeman said after the game that they believed “overtime was our friend,” and for the first play, that certainly looked to be the case.

Seaborn found Byars along the goal line to score on the first play of overtime, and after the McGuire extra point, the Warriors led 14-7, just needing a stop to win.

Grayson needed three plays to find the end zone with a short pass to the outside. Trailing by one, the Rams made the call to go for two and the win.

Opting for a direct snap to the halfback Miller, he ran behind a pair of blockers and converted to give Grayson the 15-14 win in overtime.

Freeman fully expected the Rams to go for two, telling his coaches as much after Seaborn’s touchdown pass, and said he’d do the exact same.

“When we scored and made the extra point, I said, ‘We’re either going lose or win now. They’ll never tie it,’ and I wouldn’t if I was on the road and play the game like that.” Freeman said. “I’d have gone for it too. So, I give them credit for going for two. But I think it was the right call and there was somebody going to win that play and somebody going to lose that play and they won it.”

In the end, the defense carried the way for the Warriors. In his Thompson debut, Jared Smith picked up sacks on three of his four tackles. Payton Lewis had three tackles and the defense had two turnovers between the Pires forced fumble and the Tabb interception.

McGuire also made the most of his nine punts, averaging 35.4 yards per kick with a long of 44 yards to frequently pin Grayson deep in its own territory.

However, the Warriors offense struggled to find momentum all night long. Seaborn finished the night 17-for-29 for 121 yards, a touchdown and an interception, with Jones leading the way with three catches for 40 yards. On the ground, Mike Dujon took 11 carries for just 40 yards.

While Freeman credited a strong Grayson defensive front for causing havoc on his mostly new offensive line, he said the goal now is to get the offense up to the defense’s level.

“I think we got better the second half on offense, but we have to find some offensive firepower to go with the defense,” Freeman said. “Defense played their brains out and I think we just got to continue to work and find out exactly what’s our best option on offense.”

Thompson won’t have much time to find that out as it will travel up to Nashville, Tenn. on Thursday, Aug. 29 to face the Lipscomb Academy Mustangs. However, Freeman promised that the Warriors would work to improve after facing another tough test to open the year.

“Do we need to get better? Yeah, we do. And we’re going to work to get ourselves better,” Freeman said. “But at the end of the day that was a good football team and our kids defensively and special teams played good enough to where we’ve got to get better, we’ve got to go find some offense and get better.”

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