So close: Little things doom Carver in playoff loss to Marist
Carver quarterback D.J. Riles scrambled out of a collapsed pocket. For a moment, it looked like he considered running – he had enough room to sprint for a first down, but saw an open man downfield. A wide-open man downfield.
Tigers receiver and UCF commit Ja’Cyais Credle turned upfield on what looked like a post route. The safeties both crashed the line of scrimmage to stop the scrambling Riles, who set his feet and ripped a pass to Credle. But it was a bit high. “Stretch,” as he’s appropriately nicknamed by his teammates, stretched for the ball.
It grazed his fingertips, then fell harmlessly to the Memorial Stadium grass, much to the dismay of the packed-out home stands, his Tigers teammates on the sideline and the small contingent of individuals in the press box.
So close.
Such was the case Friday night for Carver, which saw its season end with a 30-20 loss to visiting Marist. Uncharacteristic false start penalties made the Tigers’ two-point conversion attempts (Carver rarely kicks extra points) more difficult. Holding calls negated long gains on offense. Credle, in the first half, nearly tiptoed the sideline for a touchdown catch but stepped out of bounds.
“(Marist is) an experienced team,” Carver head coach Corey Joyner said. “They know their offense like the back of their hand. We fell short. Gave them too many big plays.”
Even if the Tigers had completed their last-ditch effort – Riles barely overthrew an open Credle with 3:30 left – it would have been negated by a holding penalty.
This was unquestionably the toughest challenge the 2019 Tigers had faced. Before Friday, Marist surrendered just 95 points all season, while scoring 368, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association.
Khiari McCoy, Carver’s go-to running back who eclipsed the 1,800-yard rushing mark against Marist, was held relatively in check, save for a few long runs and kickoff returns. McCoy ran for just 76 yards and did not find the end zone.
Friday’s loss will sting for the Tigers, but it’d be tough to ignore the successes the Tigers endured this season.
Carver won region 1-4A for the first time since 2015. The Tigers compiled a one-loss regular season and were the only team in the region to finish with an unbeaten region record.
The Tigers scored 40 or more points in seven games. They didn’t lose a region game, and stunned Cairo in double overtime on October 11, a game in which the Tigers overcame a 22-8 second-half deficit. It was a changing of the guard in region 4-AAAA and a game that provided a real watershed moment for a program that hasn’t won a state championship since now-Georgia Bulldogs running backs coach Dell McGee roamed the sidelines in 2007.
Like in the Tigers’ win over Cairo, they fell into a second-half hole. The Tigers clawed their way out but couldn’t pull through.
“I think this time, we gave up too many points in that second half,” Joyner said. “All of (Marist’s scores) were off of big plays. That’s what I’ve been preaching all week: If we can minimize their big plays, we’re going to have an opportunity to win the ball game.”
The Tigers were the No. 1 seed from region 1-4A and would have hosted LSU commit Max Johnson and Oconee County in the elite 8, had they pulled off the comeback.
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 11:23 PM.
