CBA's Flowers, Darden hook up for game-winning TD

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on August 22, 2015 11:25 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Damien Darden lined up in the backfield.

Rosewood's assistant coaches perched in the press box shouted "look for the waggle!"

Charles B. Aycock quarterback Jake Flowers took the snap, rolled to his right and the 6-foot-4 Darden easily slipped behind the defense. Flowers floated the ball to his target and Darden did the rest. The N.C. State commit hauled in the game-winning 7-yard touchdown reception, which capped the Golden Falcons' 34-27 season-opening victory at Hardy Talton Stadium on Friday evening.

"It was play action," Flowers said of the fourth-down call. "We had been killing them with the power (game) all night. So when we slipped Damien out, he's a big target and it's just easy to hit him. I tried not to screw it up."

Rosewood knew what to expect.

The same play occurred two times earlier in the game.

Darden's first touchdown reception that covered 8 yards came against the left side of the Eagles' defense. The second, a 3-yarder, occurred early in the fourth -- in the same spot as he final touchdown grab.

"The biggest thing I can remember, we tried to go over a couple of formations they might come out in and make sure, number one, we line up correctly," RHS head coach Robert Britt said. "Then doing what they're taught every day by reading their keys and being confident in reacting to what they see.

"Aycock was able to make the play."

With 45.1 seconds left in regulation, the Eagles' Mike Woodard received the kickoff and slipped near the goal line. He managed to keep the ball in fair territory -- inside the 1-yard line -- to avoid the safety.

Six plays later, time ran out on the Eagles and they suffered their 10th consecutive loss in the series. The Golden Falcons have won 25 of 35 meetings overall.

"We weren't going to quit," CBA head coach Steve Brooks said of the game-winning 21/2-minute, 71-yard drive Flowers directed with no timeouts in his pocket.

"We were going to find a way to score and I think the kids were believing that, too. There was no quit ... a total team effort. The kids believe in each other and believe in the coaches. It showed right there."

Aycock used two turnovers to build a 14-point lead in the opening quarter. Flowers connected with Darden in the end zone and Jordan Woodard returned a pick six to the house.

Rosewood climbed to within 14-12 on Mike Woodard's 95-yard kickoff return and Marquail Al-montaser's 29-yard scoring pass from quarterback Cameron Helt.

Woodard, Al-montaser and Helt combined for 318 of the Eagles' 335 yards of total offense.

"(When) we came back immediately and put two scores on the board, that gave us a lot of energy and we fought hard for the rest of the game," Britt said. "Both teams made their own plays. It was really two evenly-matched teams.

"Aycock did what they had to do at the end (to win)."

The Golden Falcons led 21-12 at halftime, only to see the Eagles knot the game at 27-27 with 3:41 left in regulation.

An unusually poised Flowers took over.

"We just had to focus, bare down and do what we had to do because it could have gone the other way easily," said Flowers, who spread his 112 passing yards among four different receivers.

"We finished it. It was ugly, but it worked out."