One week removed from their stunning fourth quarter comeback against McCallie, Baylor faced a scare from out of state. The Wolverines of Prince Avenue Christian came to Chattanooga, ready for a shootout with the Red Raiders, and ultimately left with a 42-35 victory.
For Baylor, the rushing prowess of senior back Caleb Hampton helped them advance down the field. His aggressive runs were a building block for the Red Raider offense in a game where star wideout Cameron Sparks frequently faced double coverage.
Though Prince Avenue Christian did not find a lot of momentum on the ground, quarterback Aaron Philo made up for it with an exceptional game passing the ball.
He rarely forced any throws and kept the chains moving with his feet on crucial short yardage situations. While a majority of his throws were in the flat, he delivered them accurately and showed great poise in crucial moments with deeper passes along the sideline. He maximized his connections with top receivers Bailey Stockton and Ethan Christian who combined for eighteen of Philo’s completions along with two hundred and eighty-nine of his passing yards.
A tightly contested first half began with an uncharacteristic fumble from Caleb Hampton. On a routine shotgun draw, the two-sport standout churned ahead for what would have been a seven yard gain, but the ball was punched out by Prince Ave before he fell to the ground.
The Wolverines were able to capitalize on this mistake, tossing the ball into the endzone to Stockton after Ethan Christian nearly took a screen to the house.
One punt from each team (the only two of the game) followed this series and then it was off to the races for both teams.
Baylor was put into a difficult situation as halftime approached. Though neither team was struggling to move the ball, they needed to tie things up before time expired. The Wolverines were set to receive the opening kick in the third and had already scored twenty-one through seventeen minutes.
Instead of changing their offense to match the ticking clock, the Red Raiders kept the ball in the hands of their most effective playmaker of the night, Caleb Hampton. On the final drive of the first half, he ran the ball seven times for forty one yards and even had a sixty plus yard touchdown called back as the result of a holding penalty. Despite the penalty, he was still able to muscle his way to a score and knot the game at twenty-one.
Coming out of halftime, Baylor continued to extend their momentum. On the second offensive play of the half, they forced a fumble in Wolverine territory. Four plays later, Baylor lobbed a touchdown pass into the left corner of the endzone for none other than Caleb Hampton.
The teams traded blows in a similar fashion as the first half with Prince Ave keeping things within a score, but things got dicey as the game headed to the fourth quarter and noise from the fans continued to build.
As the noise of clanging bells showered the field in increasing decibel levels, Prince Ave was able to tie the game at thirty five. A nearly seven minute drive ended in a sneak from Philo, who maintained composure in the face of pressure from the home crowd. The junior quarterback lined up on fourth and goal for what was the only play under center of the entire game. He faked a handoff to the fullback and plunged behind him for a critical touchdown.
Neither team had a problem scoring, but special teams were the deciding factor for the Wolverines. In the second quarter, Bailey Stockton took a kickoff eighty-three yards, setting up an effortless score to follow. The incredible gain of yardage was only overshadowed by a decisive blocked field goal that set up their go ahead drive.
After converting on two different fourth down plays, the Baylor offense marched to the nineteen of the Wolverines. They took a shot at the right corner of the end zone on a play action, but were unable to score on third down and decided to not push their luck with a third attempt to convert. The field goal unit was brought out for a thirty-six yard attempt, but succumbed to the pressure of the Prince Avenue Christian special teams unit. The defenders got a hand on the kick, which rolled out of the back of the end zone, earning the home team nothing.
This simple twist of fate set the stage for an astounding final drive from the Wolverines.
With defensive lineman careening towards him on second down, Philo took a shot down the left sideline and connected in double coverage with Ethan Christian. The senior wideout had the wherewithal to force himself out of bounds, stopping the clock and gaining thirty-one critical yards. Two plays later, Prince Ave called on Christian again. This time he torched two defensive backs on a go route and caught a bomb from Philo as he stumbled towards a touchdown.
Baylor had only a minute to tie things up and earned a huge chunk of yardage on a wonky play where quarterback Whit Muschamp lost a fumble and recovered it off the first bounce, slicing ahead to gain a massive first down and get out of bounds.
Bailey Stockton went down in his own end zone when he broke up a deep shot from the Red Raiders and injured his neck on the play. This caused a delay of well over twenty minutes while paramedics loaded him onto an ambulance to rush him towards medical attention.
This stoppage of play cut a lot of Baylor’s momentum short and they could not convert on a final pass to the end zone which was intercepted by Ethan Christian. Christian’s fingerprints were all over the surprising road victory and his final play sealed the victory for his team.
“This is why we schedule these games,” said PAC Head Coach Greg Vandagriff. “We know that to win in the third and fourth rounds in south Georgia we have to go to a hostile environment like this and persevere”.
“On the last play, we wanted to put pressure on Muschamp,” he continued. “We backed our secondary up and hoped that they could make a play with the quarterback having to get rid of the ball. They did, and I couldn’t be more proud of our kids”.
Scoring Summary:
PRINCE AVE. CHRISTIAN 7 14 7 14 - 42
BAYLOR 7 14 14 0 - 35
PAC - Aaron Philo seven yard pass to Bailey Stockton (Cameron Owens kick 8:27 1st)
BAY - Caleb Hampton twelve yard run (Kooper Keown kick 2:49 1st)
PAC - Aaron Philo forty-seven yard pass to Bailey Stockton (Cameron Owens kick 11:51 2nd)
BAY - Whit Muschamp seven yard run (Kooper Keown kick 6:23 2nd)
PAC - Aaron Philo five yard run (Cameron Owens kick 4:55 2nd)
BAY - Caleb Hampton three yard run (Kooper Keown kick :28 2nd)
BAY - Whit Muschamp twenty yard pass to Caleb Hampton (Kooper Keown kick 10:12 3rd)
PAC - Mac Bradley five yard run (Cameron Owens kick 4:26 3rd)
BAY - Whit Muschamp forty-four yard pass to Amari Jefferson (Kooper Keown kick 2:46 3rd)
PAC - Aaron Philo two yard run (Cameron Owens kick 8:42 4th)
PAC - Aaron Philo forty-one yard pass to Ethan Christian (Cameron Owens kick 1:11 4th)
Team Stats:
BAY STATS PAC
23 First Downs 27
36-146 Rushes/Yards 27-74
377 Passing Yards 222
368 Total Yards 451
17-27-1 Passing (Att-Comp-Int) 26-31-0
7-85 Penalties/Yards 8-60
1-35 Punts-Avg. 1-15
2-1 Fumbles-Lost 1-1
Individual Stats:
Rushing: Aaron Philo 9-30 2 TD, Keon Rogers 10-29, Mac Bradley 6-16 1 TD, Bailey Stockton 1-2, Ethan Christian 1 - (-3) (PAC); Caleb Hampton 26- 135 2 TD, Whit Muschamp 8-11, Amari Jefferson 2-0 (BAY)
Passing: Aaron Philo 26-31 377 3 TD Whit Muschamp 17-27 222 2 TD 1 Int (BAY)
Receiving: Ethan Christian 9-161 1 TD, Bailey Stockton 9-128 2 TD, Nick Hurley 3-50, Mac Bradley 2-15, Josh Britt 1-9, Keon Rogers 1-7, Riley Cartey 1-7 (PAC); Amari Jefferson 8-117 1 TD, Cameron Sparks 5-46, Max Leblanc 2-35, Caleb Hampton 2-24 1 TD
Records:
Baylor 6-1 Overall 3-0 District, Prince Ave Christian 6-0 Overall 0-0 Region