TROY, Mich. – This rivalry game certainly lived up to all the hype. With 8:44 left in the 1st quarter, the Troy Colts would strike first. On 3rd and goal, Troy quarterback Jay Darish would hand the ball off to running back Terrance Cherry for the two yard touchdown which ended the 28 yard drive and gave Troy the 7-0 lead.
In the 2nd quarter, the Troy Athens Red Hawks could not get any offense going. Despite recovering a fumble, going for it on 4th and 15, but not converting, returning a punt down to the 18 yard line, going for it again on 4th and two with 33.9 seconds left, the Red Hawks still could not convert the down or get into the end zone. At halftime, Troy led Troy Athens 7-0.
The 3rd quarter proved to be a bit more exciting. Early on, Red Hawks quarterback Jake Nelson would hand off to Craig Bazin and he would bust out a 53 yard gain to set up a touchdown opportunity. Two plays later on 2nd and seven, Nelson threw up a pass to #88, Lucas Bezerra for the 10 yard touchdown which tied the game 7-7. However, with 2:09 to go, the Colts would answer with a 36 yard field goal by Erich Hagen to take a 10-7 lead.
Then in the 4th quarter, Troy Athens kicker Brandon Elliott missed not one, but two field goals. The first one was a 43 yard attempt with 11:00 minutes to go and the second came with 3:19 to go and was from only 27 yards away. The Colts would sustain a long drive with 1:23 to go in the game and hang on for the 10-7 victory over their rival.
THS Head Coach Gary Griffith said afterwards the final drive was the key. "No question. We've had a problem all year of giving up big plays and in a perfect world we didn't want to give them that opportunity one more time. I thought both teams played exceptionally hard, not always well, but it's a city rivalry game and everybody lays it out on the line and that's what it was. Records get tossed out, nobody cares that they were 1-and-6 they just came out to play ball. They played a great game."
With the win, Troy improved to 5-3 and Troy Athens fell to 1-7 overall.
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