HARLAN — Williamsburg displayed a heart of a champion on Friday, rallying from a 14-point deficit on the road to lock up a district playoff home game by rallying to defeat Harlan, 28-14.
The Yellow Jackets were coming off a district loss to Middlesboro and hadn’t dropped consecutive district games in more than 10 years.
It looked as if it were going to happen Friday after the Green Dragons built a 14-0 lead and held on to the two-score advantage into the second half.
That’s when Williamsburg came alive, scoring the game’s final 28 points to improve to 5-3 overall, and 3-1 versus district opponents.
“We are excited about securing a home playoff game,” Williamsburg coach Jerry Herron said. “That’s the big thing. We dug ourselves a hole but fought back and scored 28 unanswered points.
“We made adjustments at halftime and got the win in a hostile and crazy environment,” he added. “We are so proud of our players. We didn’t play well last week, and to come back this week and get the win was huge.”
Harlan was driving late in the game to tie or regain the lead, but Zyler Housekeepr picked off a pass and raced 85 yards to seal the win for good with only 44 seconds remaining.
Hunter Thomas began the rally for Williamsburg with a six yard touchdown run to cut the Yellow Jackets’ deficit to 14-6 with 4:54 left in the third quarter.
Nate Goodin added a rushing touchdown three minutes later to tie the game at 14 apiece before his second rushing touchdown with less than seven minutes remaining in the game gave Williamsburg the lead for good.
With the loss, Harlan is now 2-7 overall, and 1-3 against district teams.
