Jets hold off Titans in finale

Football is played by 11 people per side, so it's rare when one player essentially determines the outcome of a game. But that's exactly what happened Friday night.
The Enka Jets' Akeem Ferguson was that one player.
Ferguson, a senior tailback/wide receiver, put on a one-man offensive show as the Jets held off the McDowell Titans 35-26 in a soggy shootout of a season finale.
The bullet-quick Ferguson caught eight passes for 157 yards and touchdowns of 54 and 65 yards, and rushed 21 times for 136 yards and scores of 20 and 22 yards. Nearly half the Jets' 343 total yards came on Ferguson's touchdown plays alone (161).
He accounted for 293 yards of offense; his teammates — 48 of them — combined for 50.
"The Ferguson kid is a really good player," said McDowell head coach Carson Gowan. "I told everybody he was a difference-maker and that he could play for anybody, and I think that's certainly the truth. Enka's got some other good kids, but he's a special kind of kid. He doesn't come along for Enka just every year."
Ferguson scored twice in the first quarter when the Jets overcame an early 7-0 deficit by scoring 21 points in a row. The Titans (1-5 Mountain Athletic Conference, 1-10 overall) spent the rest of the night playing catch-up.
"I thought we played a little bit better against him as the game wore on, or the field got worse and worse, and maybe that helped us," said Gowan. "But until we got used to him, he hurt us bad a couple of times there, and that was really the difference in the game."
The Titans jumped out to an early lead after Randall Conley picked off Jets quarter back Connor Cox (14-of-25, 210 yards, 3 INTs, 2 TDs) and returned the pick 32 yards to the Enka 28.
Five plays later, tailback Cameron Moore, who rushed for 100 yards and a score on 16 carries, darted in from the 7. Alex Huendo's point-after made it 7-0 with 8:30 left in the first quarter.
Enka tied the game less than two minutes later. Travis Whitaker returned the ensuing kickoff 48 yards to the McDowell 30, and Cox eventually bowled over from the 3 to make it 7-7 with 6:28 to go.
From there on out, it was all Ferguson, all the time.
The running back took a short swing pass from Cox on the next possession and turned it into a 54-yard touchdown play. Moments later, he scored on a 20-yard run, and the Jets led 21-7 with 1:47 to go in the first quarter.
But the Titans fought back. Moore picked off Cox at the McDowell 29, and the Titans marched 71 yards in eight plays. Quarterback Dakota Arrowood (8-of-28, 96 yards, TD, 3 INTs) hooked up with Matt Lytle for a 31-yard gain to the Enka 38, and eventually scored from 3 yards out to trim the deficit to 21-14 with 7:13 to go before halftime.
On Enka's next possession, the Jets faced a fourth-and-four from the McDowell 22. The Titans' goal-line defensive alignment appeared to have Ferguson stopped, but the elusive back somehow broke past the line of scrimmage and darted into the end zone.
Ferguson's dash made it 28-14 at the half.
Midway through the third, Ferguson turned another short swing route into a 65-yarder, and the Jets owned a 35-14 lead.
Still, the Titans didn't quit. Behind the running of Moore and Tim Velez (9 carries, 64 yards, TD, 2 receptions, 14 yards, TD), McDowell went 80 yards in just seven plays. Velez's 8-yard run sealed the drive and trimmed the margin to 35-20 on the final play of the third period.
But the Titans didn't score again until the game's waning stages.
Velez recovered Cox's fumble at the Enka 3 late in the fourth quarter. Two plays later, Velez caught a 2-yard TD pass from Arrowood that got McDowell as close as 35-26 with 1:16 to play.
The Jets recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock.
"I thought our kids played hard," said Gowan. "The worst thing I disliked about the game was the two unsportsmanlike penalties that we had for doing a little bit of mouthing, but outside of that, I thought our kids played hard and laid their lives down for the Titan Nation and the people of McDowell County, but when the clock ticked down after 48 minutes, we just didn't make hardly enough plays to win the football game."

YARDSTICK
Enka McDowell
First downs 16 21
Rushes-yds. 31-133 43-164
Passing 14-26-3-2 9-29-3-1
Passing yds. 210 95
Total yds. 343 259
Return yds. 126 179
Fumbles/lost 4/2 0/0
Penalties-yds. 11-115 9-63
Punts-avg. 4-34.8 7-30.4
Time of poss. 24:34 23:26

Enka 21 07 07 00 – 35
McDowell 07 07 06 06 – 26

Individual stats: Rushing: Enka (Akeem Ferguson 21-136-2TDs, Connor Cox 6-m3-TD, Travis Whitaker 3-6, Team 1-m6) McDowell (Cameron Moore 16-100-TD, Dakota Arrowood 16-m15-TD, Terrance Anderson 2-15, Tim Velez 9-64-TD) Passing: Enka (Cox 14-25-3-2-210 yds., Taylor McCurry 0-1) McDowell (Arrowood 8-28-3-1-96 yds., Moore 1-1-0-0-m1 yds.) Receiving: Enka (Ferguson 8-157-2TDs, Dallas Davis 1-7, Zeb Capps 3-18, Jon Pyeatt 1-14, Zack Gibson 1-14) McDowell (Anderson 1-2, Matt Lytle 1-31, Ryan Lambert 2-18, Jared Carver 2-32, Arrowood 1-m1, Velez 2-14-TD)

Scoring summary
First quarter
McDowell – Moore 7 run, Alex Huendo kick (8:30)
Enka – Cox 3 run, Blake Metcalf kick (6:28)
Enka – Ferguson 54 pass from Cox, Metcalf kick (4:17)
Enka – Ferguson 20 run, Metcalf kick (1:47)
Second quarter
McDowell – Arrowood 3 run, Huendo kick (7:13)
Enka – Ferguson 22 run, Metcalf kick (3:49)
Third quarter
Enka – Ferguson 65 pass from Cox, Metcalf kick (5:11)
McDowell – Velez 8 run, kick failed (:00)
Fourth quarter
McDowell – Velez 2 pass from Arrowood, kick failed (1:16)