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It was anything but pretty for the Troup football team on Friday night but the Tigers came away with a 20-17  win over Trinity Christian.

“They don’t ask you how you won, just that you won,” said a relieved Tanner Glisson, Troup’s head coach. “That gives us four wins on the season and keeps us in the hunt for the playoffs. I’m so proud of our guys tonight.”

The Tigers had to use every second on the clock and every ounce of energy they had to come from bending and snatching a victory away from the Lions. Trinity Christian kicked a field goal to go up 17-14, leaving just over two and a half minutes of game time to work with. Chase Mosley connected on multiple passes to Davis Moncus and a huge fourth down conversion to Desmon Cunningham to set up what would be the game-tying field goal.

“Desmon never even played football for us until this year and he is just a junior,” Glisson said. “Davis is just a sophomore, so we have a bunch of young guys out there that are stepping up.”

McCarty Harrelson showed ice water in his veins, nailing a 37-yard field goal to send the game to overtime.

“Nerves are shaking. I mean, I couldn’t really feel my feet,” Harrelson said. “Then they just snapped the ball and I cleared my head and walked up and kicked it.”

The Lions got the ball first and missed a field goal. Harrelson did not miss, hitting a walk-off field goal to end the game and give the Tigers a hard-fought win. 

“I’m practically speechless right now, I barely have the words to describe this feeling,” a jubilant Harrelson said after the game. “It is not the type of feeling that you get every day.”

“McCarty is one of the best kickers in the state of Georgia right now,” Glisson said. “The pressure does not get to him. It was not just the two field goals, he also did a great job for us on kickoffs tonight. The best part is we have two more years with him after this season.”

The first quarter featured little action as each team could muster one first down apiece. The closest either team came to breaking the deadlock was a missed 54-yard field goal from the Tigers on their opening possession of the game.

Troup had two touchdown passes dropped in the first half, one on the opening drive and another later in the first quarter when Troup ended up turning the ball over on downs on a fake field goal attempt.

The Tigers eventually broke the deadlock on a 75-yard rushing touchdown from Javarris Warner with 5:02 left in the first half.

It looked like the Tigers had snatched momentum in the game, but a critical error late in the first half would get the Lions back in the game. The Tigers intercepted a pass with 39 seconds left to go in the first half, but a roughing the passer call wiped away the play and gave the Lions a first down. Trinity Christian would find the end zone on the drive with just nine seconds left in the first half.

“We had them where we thought in what we thought was a good position, but then w let them get momentum to end that half and that carried over in the second half,” Glisson said. 

The momentum certainly carried over into the second half for the Lions as they recovered a muffed kickoff to start the third quarter. The Lions took a 14-7 lead less than two minutes into the second half, quieting the home crowd.

The Tigers would eventually tie the game up when Mosley connected on a 13-yard touchdown pass to Parker Townsend on fourth down with 10 minutes left in the game.

Troup improved to 4-3 overall and 3-2 in region play. The Tigers will host cross-town rival LaGrange next Friday at Callaway Stadium.