The highly anticipated matchup between Rossville and Jackson Heights lived up to the hype on Friday night at Dave Henry Football Field in the 1A State Quarterfinals. The contest will be talked about for many years to come as the Bulldawgs scored 28 points in the 4th quarter and rallied from a 17 point deficit (38-21) with 5:30 to play to score 21 points in a span of 2:23, helped out by two onside kick recoveries, to stun the Cobras on their home field, 42-38.  The insane, incredible, improbable comeback secured Rossville a spot in next week’s 1A State Semifinals.

Jackson Heights couldn’t have asked for a better start to the game as Rossville fumbled on their first play from scrimmage and on the very next play Titus Eisenbarth scored on a 13 yard scamper to put the Cobras ahead 7-0 just 18 seconds in.

Rossville responded with a 13 play, 88 yard march down the field culminating on a four yard run by Andre Johnson to tie the contest at 7. 

The Cobras added a field goal to lead 10-7 and then their defense forced another Bulldawg fumble at the Jackson Heights 17 yard line. The Cobras turned that turnover into 7 points as they drove 10 plays 83 yards, capped by Eisenbarth’s 2nd td run, this one from 19 yards out, to take a 17-7 advantage. 

Jackson Heights extended the lead later in the 2nd quarter converting a 3rd and 13 on a 42 yard pass from Drake Mellies to Austin  Zeller all the way down to the five yard line and shortly after, Mellies scored from the five to push the lead to 24-7. 

Rossville had an answer with :16 left before halftime as Tayson Horak completed a bubble screen to Mahki Jackson that he took to the house from 25 yards to pull within 24-14 at intermission.

The Cobras pushed the lead back to 17 as they strung together a 14 play 55 yard scoring drive, converting two 4th downs, to go up 31-14 as Kade Holliday hit paydirt on a 7 yard tote with :42 seconds left in the 3rd quarter.

Once again, the Bulldawgs were in a must score situation.  They met the challenge with another Horak to Jackson connection, this time from 35 yards out to close the gap to 31-21.

Not to be outdone, Jackson Heights took five minutes off the clock to take, what seemed to be a comfortable, 38-21 advantage on a Mellies five yard run with 5:30 remaining in the game. 

From there, it was all Rossville as the Bulldawgs took just 56 seconds to cut the deficit to 38-28 with Horak firing a sweet pass down the sideline to Jack Donovan for a 39 yard score.  With only one timeout and down two scores, Rossville head coach Derek Hammes sent out his onside kick specialist, Cameron Miller, who promptly booted a well executed kick that bounced into the arms of Mahki Jackson. 2 plays and 20 seconds later, Horak scrambled and found Kameron Budura in the back of the end zone from 17 yards out and all of a sudden the Cobra lead was down to 38-35.

On the ensuing kickoff, Miller was once again summoned to try the onside kick and once again it was Jackson on the recovery just in bounds on the near sideline at the Jackson Heights 37 after it bounced off a Cobra player. Three plays later with 3:07 remaining, Horak found the end zone on a 6 yard QB power run and in a span of 2:23, Rossville scored 21 points and turned a 38-21 deficit into a 42-38 lead which was the first time all season that the Cobras had trailed in a game.  

Jackson Heights had two more chances to complete a late rally themselves but turned the ball over on downs and ran out of time on their last drive ending their outstanding season at 10-1.

Horak tossed 4 touchdown passes, 3 in the final quarter, ending the night with 277 passing yards, many of those coming off wide receiver bubble screens to Jackson (5 receptions for 85 yards and 2 TDs) and Donovan (5 receptions for 130 yards and a TD).

Mellies led the Cobra offense rushing for 127 yards and two scores to along with just over 100 yards passing.

Rossville is now 8-3 and goes to Centralia (10-1) to face the Panthers next Friday in the 1A State Semifinals which you can catch on 96.9 the Pulse!