This Had To Be The Game, September 17, 1969

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September 17, 1969

Great games were the rule especially last year. But a Brownie Scout, a stray dog, Bud Wilkinson even a computer with a short fuse could have picked The Best, Hands down, the greatest show of the greatest year came in the season's fourth week, when Leesburg High paused in its march to the State Class A finals to lock horns with the Wildwood Wildcats.

Leesburg entered the game with a 3-0 record, the last victory the biggest for the Jackets' fine offense, a 32-12 defeat of Kissimmee in which Mike Napier passed for 330 yards and three touchdowns and Greg Williams caught 12 for 186 yards and a score. But Kissimmee had been a slip up for the Jackets' defense- though Kissimmee got only 71 total yards, two Kowboy runners invaded Jacket goal line territory, the first TDs given up by the Jackets all year.

Wildwood, on the other hand, busy building a team that would run away from all comers after the Leesburg game, had just lost big in Tallahassee, 38-12 to Florida High a puzzler, even weeks later, to Coach Dub Palmer, who characteristically took the blame himself: "I just didn't get them ready for it," he said. Wildwood was 2-1 and beginning to feel its chance of getting into the State Class B playoffs slipping away in the hot competition of Class B football, Palmer pointed out, one loss can be the loss of a season.

Wildwood, then, was mad maybe a little desperate. Leesburg was riding the crest of the long wave that broke, two months later, in the Championship game in Tampa. The two teams squared off for this traditional rivalry which for reasons officially unrelated to this game will not be played this year.

Then Sports Editor Mike Fowler wrote this account of the big game:

WILDWOOD _ As a football game, it was nuclear parity, a whale vs. an elephant, a tornado meeting a hurricane. Wildwood's Wildcats, sky-high, floated onto the field a couple of feet above the ground, and Leesburg's Yellow Jackets floated out to meet them. It was the annual grudge match, in which season's records meant nothing. One school could have fielded the NFL All-Stars, the other then donkeys and a parrot, and it still would have been a battle.

Wildwood won every static except luck and the final score, which was 7-2 Leesburg -a 57-yard TD pass from Mike Napier to Greg Williams beating a safety forced by Wildcats Vaughn Black and Wayne Allen, who blocked a punt in the end zone.

A rash of mistakes, made in the fourth quarter, hurt Wildwood, which outrushed and outpassed the Jackets and held their smooth offense to only five first downs. Leesburg, stymied on offense, hurled all its defensive force at the Wildcats, capitalized on their mistakes and used one big play to win.

But the game was defense, as the Wildcats held the Yellow Jackets-who entered averaging 378 total yards a game to just 149, and held quarterback Napier to just four completions in 13 attempts and 81 yards one of them that 57-yarder to Williams for the winning touchdown.

And the Jackets' defense which allowed the Wildcats almost as many yards as they had allowed their previous three opponents combined (243 to 317) dug in everytime Wildwood threatened--outstanding especially in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter when the Cats were moving easily and desperately, and Tony Hart intercepted two passes and Sherrill Lackey one to end the game with reserve quarterback Andy Carlton falling on the ball three times as the clock ran to zero.

It left Jacket Coach Wilbur Lofton leaning against a car conceding, "We were just lucky to get out of it," and Wildcat Coach Dub Palmer regretting the interceptions, the fumbles, and one play in particular, a bad mistake certain he'd just lost a game he should have won.

Leesburg spent most of the first half backing up.

Wildwood roared out from their 3-0 to open the game, behind running back Wayne Allen who carried a total of 18 times for 97 yards, caught three passes from Dale Nichols for 35 yards and threw one pass himself to Elijah Jackson for 15 yards. With Allen carrying the first four plays, the Wildcats reached Leesburg's 46 before punting, pushing the Jackets to their own 26, where Mike Chatman got one yard, Napier missed one pass to Williams and completed another which was nullified by a holding penalty. The Jackets found themselves on their 12, forced to punt.

Larry Humes dropped into the end zone and kicked, but Allen and Black charged through, blocked it, and nearly recovered for a touchdown. In fact, six points had gone on the scoreboard by the time the pileup disentangled to reveal Humes hugging the ball, a safety not TD.

The teams treaded defensive heroics then, as Wildwood held the Jackets on the Cat 18, forcing a futile field goal attempt, then the Jacket defensive line stopped Wildwood's four tries from the Jacket six. The half ended on this note.)

Leesburg's vein of luck grew deeper and richer shortly into the second half, after a short punt gave the Jackets the ball on their own 43.

On the first play, Napier and Williams teamed up on the play that was to be the Jackets biggest al

The rest of the game was Wildwood errors killing Wildwood opportunities.

Two passes from Nichols to Jackson took the Wildcats from their 40 to the Leesburg 27 after the kickoff, but Leesburg's Mike Chatman recovered a fumbled pitchout to end that.

Leesburg punted to Watkins at the Wildwood 15, Watkins just touched the ball, and Andy Carlton scooped it up-missing a touchdown by a rule which prohibits running a fumbled punt. A pass interference call moved Leesburg to the six as the fourth quarter began, but Wildcat Bruce Johnson intercepted a Napier pass at the one and the Wildcats moved out on Nichols arm completions this drive went to Allen twice and to Jackson once.

But with five minutes remaining and the Wildcats in Jacket territory, Tony Hart began an eleventh-hour pattern which would prove fatal to Wildcat hopes when he intercepted a Nicholas pass on his own 42.

Wildwood got two more opportunities, and both ended the same way. Leesburg punted,, but Bruce Johnson, in at quarterback lobbed a pass into Sherrill Lackey's hands on the Cats' second play. Then Chatman fumbled, Wildcat Dennis Wallace recovered, Nichols passed to Johnson and Hart intercepted again at the Leesburg 45 with a minute left, and Carlton ran out the clock.

The second interception was a mistake, nothing else. Wildwood carries two quarterbacks Nichols for passing and Johnson, a fine runner, for moments when a run is imperative. But in the fourth quarter, with Johnson directing the team, Wildwood called a pass play. Johnson lobbed one end over end that came near nobody but Sherrill Lackey, who intercepted looking surprised.

"It was my fault," said Palmer afterwards.  "I forgot the boy was in there and called the pass. I guess he figured, well, I'll give it a try. But that's what happened."

Resources
Article provided by:
Gerald Lacey
Staff Writer
Carver Heights Quarterback Club
1986 Varsity Jackets Football Lettermen #82
Class of 1988 Leesburg High School

leesburgyellowjacketsfootball@yahoo.com
www.leesburgyellowjacketsfootball.com

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