Lindside – Midland Trail head coach Jeremy Moore gambled all night and came up with an ace, or rather a Rayce.
Sophomore quarterback Rayce Dickerson turned a busted play into a 57-yard touchdown run with 4:27 to play, giving Class AA No. 8 Midland Trail a 28-17 lead in an eventual 28-25 victory over No. 10 James Monroe in Lindside Friday night.
The touchdown capped a second-half comeback that saw the Patriots trail 17-7 at the break before running off 21 straight points for the victory.
Dickerson, who had a pair of momentum-changing plays for the Patriots, was operating out of he pistol when the turned back to his right, missing handoff to running back Jayden Roop.
Collected, he took off to his left for the decisive dagger.
“We were running outside zone with Roop and (Dickerson’s) coached anytime that he misses the handoff, just follow and he did,” Moore said. “Roop threw a great block and our receivers on that side threw a great block. It was just guys trying to make a play. It was a busted play per se but we practice that if he misses he just follows so it worked out. They were stacking the box anyway so it worked out.”
It was a night where Dickerson, and the Patriots (6-1) as a whole, could do no wrong at critical points in the game.
The momentum changer for the Patriots came on fourth-and-17 at the James Monroe (5-2) 40 on the first drive of the second half. Moore rolled the dice and elected to go for it and Dickerson rewarded him, connecting on a 40-yard touchdown pass to Gage Johnson who slipped behind the Maverick defense to bring the visitors back within three points.
It highlighted the overarching theme of the night for the Patriots who were an eye-boggling 5-of-6 on fourth down conversion attempts.
“We really try to stay ahead of the chains and not put ourselves behind them,” Moore said. “When you do that you can go for it on fourth down because it’s manageable situations. And we marched the ball down the field to the point where we could go for it. We had some first downs to be able to do that.”
The Mavericks, who piled up 281 yards through the air, were boom or bust on offense. They produced six plays of 25-plus yards, accounting for 223 of those 281 passing yards. The down-to-down inconsistencies often caught up to them on third down where they were 3-of-12 on conversion attempts and 0-for-3 on fourth down attempts.
“I think a lot of that’s kind of a testament to the team Trail has,” James Monroe head coach John Mustain said. “They’ve got some tough kids on that team. I was proud of the way our kids played. We did make some mistakes and they made some mistakes too but I was really proud of the boys. That’s a tough, tough team and when you’ve got a team that’s as senior dominated as they are, that can happen some times.”
James Monroe didn’t need much offense for its first score, blocking a punt and recovering it at the Trail 7. The Patriots held for a 22-yard field goal from Bryce Gardiner, a player they saw a lot of Friday evening.
Trail eventually answered on its third drive when Dickerson found Jamison Swafford for a 10-yard score but James Monroe responded two drives later with its longest play of the night, a 62-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Mann to Gardinier.
The game slowed afterwards with three straight punts but with under a minute to go the hosts delivered another blow when Mann tossed to Jayden Miller on a reverse who connected with Gardinier on a 41-yard scoring strike with 37 seconds to play in the half.
Trailing 17-7 at the break, Dickerson’s touchdown pass to Johnson woke up the offense. On the eventual go-ahead scoring drive for the Patriots that crossed from the third to the fourth quarter, the Patriots converted a pair of fourth downs courtesy of a Jacob Ewing run and a 13-yard completion from Dickerson to Aidan Foster. The go-ahead score came when Dickerson found Xaylen Johns for a 9-yard touchdown, the third of the evening for the signal caller.
The Trail defense held, forcing an incompletion on a fourth-down heave from Mann on the ensuing Maverick drive, setting up Dickerson’s decisive run.
It was one that nearly didn’t occur after a third-and-4 toss to Ryan Stephens was fumbled, but gathered and turned into a 14-yard gain to keep the drive alive.
“We ran that in practice a little bit and Ryan’s speedy,” Moore said. “We don’t really run him on offense a lot like we should but him wanting to make a play he dropped the ball. My coaching staff hates me for calling it but I understand. That was a senior just wanting to make a play. It doesn’t have to be pretty, if you give good effort, good things happen.”
James Monroe hung around with Mann finding Kadyn Hines for a leaping 35-yard completion down to the Trail 4, but Ewing slapped the ball loose for a fumble that Jamison Swafford recovered. The Mavericks forced and recovered a fumble two plays later, following up with a 2-yard touchdown run from Mann and a successful two-point conversion from Mann to Hines but the Patriots successfully held the ball the rest of the way, fittingly drawing a fourth down encroachment penalty that provided a fresh set of clock-churning downs.
“That’s just a testament to us sticking with it and not folding,” Moore said. “You’ve seen us play James Monroe. They beat us like we stole something. These guys dug in. They’re a good group; a different group.”
Dickerson finished 10-of-15 passing for 94 yards and three touchdowns with an additional 60 yards and score in the ground. Jayden Roop led all rushers with 102 yards on 30 attempts.
Mann threw for 240 yards and a touchdown but was picked off by Swafford and Brody Jones.
Hines hauled in fiver passes for 131 while Gardinier finished with four catches for 126 yards.
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