How Hallsville remained poised in a tough game against Palmyra

Not many things went in Hallsville’s (0-1) favor in a heartbreaking 42-40 double overtime home loss to Palmyra (1-0) on Friday night.

With time ticking down in the first half and Hallsville trailing 28-12, Palmyra quarterback Rylan Compton fired a dart over the middle of the field into traffic. Instead of finding its way to a wide receiver, the ball went into the hands of sophomore safety Gabriel Jenkins. But, before making what could have been an easy interception, Jenkins tried running first without securing the catch, and the ball fell to the turf.

More: Scores and results from week 1 of Boone County high school football

Palmyra elected not to take another risk and kneeled out of the clock, heading into the locker room. Instead of having a high percentage shot at making it a one-score game before half, Hallsville closed the first two quarters down 16 points. A game to that point had been filled with plenty of turnovers on downs in plus territory for Hallsville and a pick-six. Palmyra running backs Wyatt Augspurg and Landon Carroll seemed to get all they wanted on the ground, as both combined for over 200 yards on the night.

But, through all the adversity faced through the first 24 minutes of action, Hallsville didn’t waver or get discouraged on its home turf. As both teams were going into the locker room, a couple of coaches from the Hallsville coaching staff calmly approached Jenkins.

"We were trying to pick him up and continue building him up with confidence,” Hallsville head coach Paul Stevens said.

Confidence is key for a team such as Hallsville for the 2024 season. Unlike last year's team, Hallsville returns only three starters on both sides of the football, meaning many underclassmen will have to fill important roles across the football field.

“The biggest thing on our coaching staff is to pick these kids up and find a way to push them out of their comfort zone and to continue fighting and never quit,” Stevens said.

That's precisely what Hallsville did in the second half.

Defensively, Hallsville began to win upfront by shutting down Palmyra's attack, rallying hard to the football, and stuffing the running lanes. This forced Compton to go through the air. On a third and long, and under duress, a long pass towards the sidelines was intercepted by senior defensive back Ely Washam, who returned into the end zone from 17 yards out, igniting the Hallsville crowd and cutting the lead to 28-20.

It didn’t take long for Jenkins to redeem himself for the late-half mishap. Shortly thereafter, he collected Compton’s second interception of the night, exhibiting the resilience that first-year head coach Stevens uses to describe his team's actions.

“To see him in the second half be able to make the play and get the interception was huge, and we were proud of him,” Stevens said.

Hallsville's defense stepping up in the second half allowed the offense to successfully catch up as quarterback Brayden Matheny settled into a groove late in the fourth quarter. It was a bit of a shaky start for the senior, who tossed for over 2,400 yards last season.

On his first pass attempt of the game, Matheney delivered a beautiful strike to Aidan Sczodroski for a 48-yard score in the first quarter. But outside that, he threw a pair of interceptions, absorbed a couple of sacks, and lost a fumble.

It could be a bit justifiable as outside of star wide receiver Issac Stinson, Matheney is playing with an almost new offensive line that features two freshmen and a sophomore. Nevertheless, he remained poised and calm through four-plus quarters.

“You just have to stay calm. That’s the main key,” Matheney said. “If something bad goes wrong, I’m just talking to myself in my head and saying it's okay. Just go out there and get the next play, try to do better.”

Stevens noted how Matheney is a key figure in mentoring a young team off the field.

“He does well with the young kids. He’s a good mentor for these young kids,” Stevens said. “A lot of the kids go up to him and ask him questions of things they need to work on and I feel like he has pretty good advice for them.”

Hallsville sophomore running back Wyatt Morris scored his second touchdown from five yards out, making it 34-26 following a Carroll score for Palmyra. After Hallsville’s defense stood strong once against, Palmyra pinned Hallsville deep with a punt. That’s when Matheney took over.

Facing a 3rd and long, Matheney fired a long pass down the right sideline for a first down. Shortly thereafter, he hit Stinson for 25 more yards.

“We got pinned deep with that punt, and it didn’t stop us,” Matheney said. “We came out guns blazing. We gave it to one of our receivers, Lawson Burks, for about a 30-40-50-yard catch, and we just executed from there on.”

It wasn’t soon before Matheney hit Stinson in the corner of the end zone with 37 seconds left before connecting with him again on a rollout pass for the two-point conversion, sending the game into overtime.

Both teams turnover it over on downs in the first extra stanza. In the second overtime, Augspurg powered his way into the end zone from 19 yards out, followed by a successful two-point conversion.

On Hallsville’s offensive drive, Matheney used his legs to maneuver his way across the pylon. Going for two to tie things up, Matheny sold the run fake before delivering a pop pass to Morris, who wasn’t able to secure the catch dropping Hallsville to 0-1 on the year.

“At the end there we score a touchdown, we get the two-point conversion, we were short on it,” Stevens said. “We had kids, a lot of kids on the sideline come up and go up to Wyatt, who we threw it to and to just let him know ‘hey we care about you,’ and I talked to him to after and talked to the team that I was going to call that play no matter what and it was going to go to you, and I would call it again even though we weren’t successful.”

After the game, Matheney wasn’t discouraged by how it ended. Instead, he was proud of how hard the young players fought for 48 minutes.

“I have great hopes for this team,” Matheney said. “We didn’t win this game, (but) we showed fight and we showed we have what it takes.”

Hallsville will travel 11 miles north next Friday to take on rival Centralia (0-1). The Panthers fell at Mexico in their week 1 matchup 20-16. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Hallsville remained poised in a tough game against Palmyra