MABEN, Miss. East Webster had already watched a two-touchdown lead shrink to six points. Then Eupora intercepted a tipped pass and drove back into scoring territory. With the Maroon Bowl still hanging in the balance, the Wolverines needed their defense to hold one more time.
It did. East Webster broke up a fourth-down reverse in the backfield with a little more than two minutes remaining, then survived one last Eupora possession to finish a 20-14 victory Thursday night.
The Wolverines closed the regular season at 9-1 with their fourth consecutive win. Eupora finished 8-2. Both defenses made the other offense earn its way down the field, and a handful of snaps on special teams helped decide who left with the county bragging rights.
East Webster never trailed. Eupora never made that lead feel comfortable.
A first half built on stops
The opening quarter ended 0-0, and the score suited the game. Eupora's defensive front disrupted East Webster's running game, while the Wolverines kept Peyton Perkins and the Eagles from turning early possessions into points.
East Webster found some room through the air. Kross Avent got the ball out quickly to Lamarkiz McCurry against a blitz, and Jertaven Ivy made a fourth-down catch over the middle to extend a possession. Those completions mattered because the Wolverines were not getting many easy series. Penalties and negative plays repeatedly left them working against long yardage, and Eupora made stops on fourth down to keep the game level.
The breakthrough began with defense. Quay Coleman caught Perkins in the backfield on third down, forcing a punt and giving East Webster another chance before halftime.
Avent found Jace Yates for a gain downfield on the ensuing possession. McCurry then delivered another fourth-down catch, this one putting the Wolverines close to the goal line. East Webster finished with a run up the middle from an I-formation look, and the extra point made it 7-0.
That was the halftime margin. After so much work between the goal lines, East Webster had finally put together the sequence it needed: a defensive stop, a useful return, a downfield completion and a conversion with the drive on the line.
Eupora answers, then a punt changes the night
Eupora's defense gave the Eagles their opening after halftime. East Webster came up short on another fourth-down try, and Perkins began moving the offense the other way.
A downfield completion helped set up the Eagles' first touchdown. Perkins found Ryder Weeks open for the scoring pass with 4:38 left in the third quarter. Eupora went for two and was stopped, leaving East Webster ahead 7-6.
The Eagles followed that score with another defensive stand. They forced East Webster to punt, putting themselves in position to take possession with a chance to move in front.
Instead, the punt became one of the night's biggest swings. The ball touched a Eupora player, East Webster recovered, and the Wolverines kept a possession their offense had been unable to extend. They turned that opportunity into a touchdown on a run that bounced outside. The extra point was no good, leaving the score 13-6 with 2:34 left in the third.
For Eupora, that stretch was costly. Its defense had done the hard part by forcing the punt. The Eagles still wound up defending a short field and watching East Webster restore its seven-point lead.
A two-score lead lasts one kickoff
Coleman delivered another important play in the fourth quarter, intercepting a pass to give East Webster the ball back. The Wolverines turned that takeaway into points, with Avent keeping the ball and driving through contact for a touchdown. The extra point pushed the lead to 20-6 with about eight minutes left.
That should have given East Webster some breathing room. Perkins took it away on the ensuing kickoff.
The Eupora senior broke through the coverage and went the distance for a touchdown. The Eagles converted the two-point try, cutting the deficit to 20-14 with 7:45 remaining. In the space of one return and one conversion, a game that had become a two-possession climb was back within reach.
The conversion mattered. Eupora could now take the lead with a touchdown and an extra point. Its defense responded by intercepting a tipped pass with less than six minutes left, giving the Eagles a chance to do exactly that.
East Webster finishes the job
Eupora moved inside the East Webster 20, but the Wolverines kept the Eagles from finishing the drive. On fourth down near the 15 with 2:23 remaining, Eupora tried a reverse. The exchange was bobbled, East Webster closed in, and the play ended in the backfield.
The Wolverines still had to give the ball back. After East Webster used much of the remaining clock and punted, Eupora took over at its own 20 with 28.8 seconds left and no timeouts. The Eagles could not produce the last long scoring play they needed. A quarterback run was stopped on the final snap, ending the comeback attempt.
That finish explained East Webster's night. The Wolverines did not put together a smooth offensive performance, and Eupora made them pay for mistakes. But East Webster converted the special-teams recovery and Coleman's interception into touchdowns, then protected the lead when Eupora got close enough to threaten it.
For the Eagles, the loss will sting because the chances were there. Their defense repeatedly stopped drives, Perkins supplied a return that changed the fourth quarter, and the tipped-pass interception put the tying touchdown within reach. What they could not get was one more finish inside East Webster territory.
On a senior night that demanded much more than a celebration, the Wolverines earned their ending. They had to win the Maroon Bowl all the way through the final snap.
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