By Amber Pennycuff
I’m not sure if cold could even be used to describe the conditions of last nights game. But besides the freezing temperatures, the Brentwood and Ravenwood “Battle of the Woods” was heated up. Ravenwood (8-1, 5-0) triumphed over Brentwood (3-6, 2-3) 22-21, and who knew, it would come down to a successfully blocked field-goal attempt.
It was scoreless first quarter between the Raptors and Bruins, but quarterback Aaron Maher sailed one right into Austin Well, who drove it 35-yards down the sideline to give Brentwood its first points of the game in the second-quarter.
Ravenwood answered right back with Seth Rowland to grace the end zone and make it a Raptors TD and create a neck-and-neck game at the end of the half.
Heading back from the half, Ravenwood secured a lead, for the time-being with a field-goal, bringing the score 10-7.
It was down to the final moments of the game in the fourth, and Brentwood had already added two TDs to take back a lead over the Raptors, 21-10. With 5:20 left in the quarter, the Raptors graced the end zone once more, but the 2-point conversion was no good.
Only minutes to go the game was heating up and final seconds were approaching. An interceptions by Austin Percy would give Ravenwood the ball with a 16-21 score and 3:12 left in the match-up.
The final TD of the night was made with 1:26 left in the game, with another failed 2-point conversion, and Ravenwood was up 22-21. Brentwood was counting every second. And as we have seen in the past weeks, not only in high-school but SEC, it came down to a FGA on the field. Everything came down to this moment and blocking the kick, the Raptors did just that.
Swarming the field, Ravenwood was awarded with The Battle of The Woods trophy, and MaxPreps Rivals was there to catch all of the action.
The teams were the seventh rivalry game to be featured on the inaugural MaxPreps Rivalry Series presented by the National Guard.
Ravenwood is one of the most persistent teams that we have seen this season. You can tell that new head coach Will Hester has made a tremendous impact on these young men, and their fight is incredible.
Hester said they have been talking about this week since January.
“We knew when this game was…it has been circled on our calendar for a long time…this kind of exercises a couple demons for these kids,” noted Hester, “you know the last time they beat them was as freshmen in the ninth grade game…this means a lot more to them…and not only was it that but it was to win the district basically and probably keep them from being in the play-offs. So all of these things are huge for these kids.”
The past ten years, Brentwood has had an 8-2 hold on Ravenwood, and the bitter-sweet revenge can be attributed to the teams hard work on and off the field.
Next week, Ravenwood will take on district rival Summit (1-8, 0-5).
The Williamson Source will keep you updated on Ravenwood throughout the rest of the 2013 season.
