LAKE PROVIDENCE – With 12 seconds and no time outs left, Briarfield Academy quarterback Jamie Fortenberry thought his team might have two more plays at best.

After an incompletion, seven seconds remained and the Rebels were still on the Tensas Academy 29-yard line. It was time for one last play.

“After the pass went incomplete, I thought ‘this would probably be it,'” Fortenberry said.

With the game tied at 14, the Rebels knew they had to get into the end zone or the District 7-A opener was headed to overtime.

“We came out in trips left, and what we wanted was to get somebody open on a crossing route,” Fortenberry recounted.

Instead, Fortenberry had to scramble away and that busted the play’s initial reads.

“From there it became an improvised scramble play,” BA coach Lance Prine said.

Sophomore tight end Jon Jon Taylor was not a primary receiver, in fact, he may have been the fourth option.

“Tensas had the trip guys pretty well covered but I read where their linebackers had come up. Jon Jon was supposed to go backside, and he was there, open,” Fortenberry said.

Taylor, a 6-foot-1, 170-pounder, caught the pass at the Tensas 12.

“Jon Jon made a great play,” Fortenberry said. “He made the catch and then moved around one guy. He was headed to the corner when a couple of guys converged on him. But he broke away. At that point it was just a matter of who wanted it more.”

Taylor won that battle, and with it the game as he rumbled into the end zone to complete the winning 29-yard touchdown pass.

“I just got it and ran with it,” Taylor said. “I felt like I was dragging three players, I think, from about the five.”

Rebel guard Lee Fairchild thought for a moment, Taylor might come up short.

“I felt like I needed to help him get into end zone because they had pretty much converged on him. But to help push him along, would’ve been a penalty on us.”

Instead, Taylor made it and with it gave Briarfield a dramatic 20-14 win over a team that had beaten them last year and essentially knocked the Rebels out of the MPSA playoffs, spoiling an 8-2 season.

“It was great to win because they beat us last year by six points,” Taylor said.

While Prine said Taylor deserves credit for coming up big at the end, he felt both his offensive and defensive units deserve praise as well.

“Our defense came up with a turnover at our 40 with just over a minute left. We were able to take advantage of that mistake because we managed the clock pretty well and then made a big play at the end.”

For Taylor, the two catches on the final drive were only his second and third receptions all season for the now 3-1 Rebels.

“I’ve now caught three this year, but that was my first touchdown,” he said.