Carroll scores in final minute to beat Dothan

Under head coach Robert Johnson, Carroll has been known for its power running game.

But with the game in the balance Friday night, it was the Eagles’ passing game that was decisive.

Down three in the final minutes, Carroll completed three key passes, including a game-winning 6-yard touchdown pass from Brock Peterman to James Carson with 21.9 seconds left, to rally for a 22-18 win over the Dothan Tigers at Rip Hewes Stadium to ruin the Tigers’ homecoming.

Two of the completions, including the game-winning score, came on third down, while the other pass was on fourth down.

Carroll improved to 3-2 with the win. Rebuilding Dothan, which led most of the game, fell to 0-5.

“That was a tremendous game,” Carroll’s Johnson said. “Our guys played their hearts out. That was our best ballgame of the year by far. I am so proud of these guys.

“Dothan has got a good football team. They are well-coached, and they played so hard. I hate they lost because they didn’t deserve to lose. They have it turned it around over there.

“We converted so many big plays, and they converted so many big plays. This is what high school football is all about. It’s one of the best games I have been involved in.”

Dothan first-year head coach Kelvis White said it was another step in the learning process for the Tigers, who played their best game of the season, but couldn’t slam the door shut on a late lead.

“It was a tough one,” White said. “We are improving every day and we just have to take that next step to win it. It looked like at times we were afraid to put it away. We will get better.”

Behind two big plays and an efficient offense, Dothan seized an 18-15 lead in the second quarter.

It almost held up.

However, Carroll got one last offensive shot with 5:08 left in the game.

After two plays for no yards, Carroll’s A.J. Gissendanner rolled left and fired a completion to Carson for 14 yards and a first down.

Three plays later, it was fourth-and-8 at the 30. This time, Gissendanner fired in the right side to Josh James, who raced down the sideline to the 5, giving Carroll new downs with 1:30 left.

A motion penalty and tough Tiger defense put Carroll in a 3rd-and-goal at the 6 with 26.4 seconds left.

That’s when Peterman hit the quick slant to Carson, who came from the left side across the middle to snare the game-winner.

“We didn’t think we could run it in on them right there,” Johnson said. “We thought they were too big up the middle. The slant had been there all night. We had to throw it and we had to throw to our senior and he went up and made a good catch.”

Solomon Page converted the extra point to make it 22-18 with 21.9 seconds left.

“You have to credit coach Johnson and his staff as they made some great calls and some gutsy calls to throw the ball,” White said of the late passing. “It came out in their favor.”

Dothan, though, had one last threat thanks in part of a kicking mistake by Carroll.

Johnson said the Eagles were trying to squib it down the field 30 yards, but miscommunication led to an onsides kick, which Dothan recovered at the Carroll 49.

An illegal substitution penalty on Carroll moved it to the 44 without the clock moving.

Tiger quarterback Jay LeGrand hit Jordan Brooks on a 9-yard pass to the sideline with Brooks going out of bounds to stop the clock with 16.8 seconds left.

LeGrand then scrambled for eight yards to the Carroll 27, running out of bounds to stop the clock with 11.5 seconds left.

After an incompletion to the end zone, Dothan inserted Lazaro Aguilar at quarterback. After finding no receivers opened, Aguilar saw open room to run, but Eagle
defenders closed in and tackled him at the 17 to end the game.

The opening half went back-and-forth.

Gissendanner, who had 104 yards rushing, scored on a 36-yard run, but Dothan answered on its first series with a 25-yard Matt Johnston field goal.

The Tigers, who scored on all three of their first-half series, surged ahead 10-7 early in the second quarter as Brandon Knight took a handoff from LeGrand off the left side, broke two tackles and raced down the sideline on a 59-yard scoring run.

Carroll countered on its next series, with James, who had 105 yards rushing, scoring on a 2-yard run. Gissendanner ran in a two-point conversion to make it 15-10.

Brooks ignited the Tigers on the ensuing kickoff, returning 73 yards to the Carroll 20.

Four plays later, LeGrand connected on a 6-yard TD pass to Leartis Davis. He followed with a two-point conversion to Brook to put the Tigers up 18-15.

Dothan had a golden opportunity to extend the lead early in the third quarter but Gissendanner intercepted a pass near the goal line.

“That was the play of the game,” Johnson said. “If they score there, we would still have a chance, but it would have been real tough.”