CEDAR BLUFF – Cedar Bluff senior receiver Anthony Taylor saw the ball coming his way. He just prayed he could make a play to haul it in.

With 2:12 remaining in the game and the Tigers trailing by two, Taylor had just split a pair of Collinsville defenders and headed toward the corner of the end zone. He was wide open.

Sometimes, those wide-open catches are the hardest to make, but Taylor made it look easy. He hauled in the game-winning touchdown grab to lift the Tigers to a 27-21 win on their Homecoming.

“I’m not used to the ball coming to me,” Taylor said. “I just saw it in the air and I knew I had to catch it. I’m just lucky I came down with it. It was a great throw by (Tiger quarterback) Kyle (Crane). He threw it right where he needed to throw it.”

Crane said he wanted to make the throw to Taylor just right, and it was.

“Those plays like that that are wide open, there’s pressure on you,” he said. “Last year, I went through a lot of pressure, and having a year under my belt helped out.”

The play was nothing out of the ordinary for the Tigers, but head coach Jonathan McWhorter knew he had to loosen things up and give the Panthers a play they weren’t expecting.

“We knew they had been packing the box pretty good and defending our run game,” he said. “We had run a few sweeps and had some success there. Basically, we rolled out there and gave it the look of another sweep. Our inside receiver (Taylor) ran a corner route and got in between the corner and safety. We made a good throw and made a good catch and we scored.”

But before the Tigers (5-1, 4-0 Class 1A, Region 6) could celebrate their win, Cedar Bluff’s defense had to hold off a determined Collinsville team that didn’t back down.

The Panthers (2-4, 1-3) drove the ball down inside of Cedar Bluff’s 20 and looked as if they would score. However, the Tiger ‘D’ stiffened, and on 4th-and-4 near the 15, quarterback Robert Gray’s run fell short of a first down with 9.9 seconds left in the game.

Crane and the Tiger offense came back on the field. He took a knee, and the Tigers took the win.

One of the players in on the crucial tackle of Gray in the waning moments was Jake Bevels.

“Everybody just crowded in on him and brought him to the ground,” Bevels said. “It’s not a pretty win, but we got it.”

Added Cedar Bluff coach Jonathan McWhorter: “We lined up in our base defense and just challenged our kids to make a play. We didn’t ask them to do anything special. We just asked them to do what they’ve been coached to do and what we’ve worked on all week. Our kids made it happen when it had to happen, plain and simple.”

Early on in the game, it was the Panthers who established themselves. They got on the board first with a 6-yard touchdown run from Gray. The point after was no good, but Collinsville had a 6-0 lead with 9:13 to go in the first quarter.

Cedar Bluff took the lead on Crane’s 28-yard touchdown pass to Tyric Scales with 6:24 left in the first. Jim Nelson added the extra point to make it 7-6 Tigers.

Crane threw his second touchdown pass of the night with 4:09 left before the half. This one went to Taylor, who hauled in a 14-yard reception for the score. Nelson’s PAT failed, but the Tigers had a 13-6 lead.

Collinsville regained the lead just before the half on a 35-yard touchdown pass from running back Jonathon Cole to Trey Jones. Collinsville went for two and was successful, giving the Panthers a 14-13 lead.

The Panthers later scored on a 7-yard run by Cole with 48 seconds left in the first half. The point after gave the Panthers a 21-13 lead.

Cedar Bluff bounced back quickly and scored a touchdown with just 11 seconds remaining before the break on Crane’s 9-yard touchdown throw to Scales. The Tigers were unsuccessful on the 2-point conversion, leaving the game at 21-19 in the Tigers’ favor at the half.

That was the way the game would remain until the fourth quarter, when Taylor came up with the winning score with 2:12 left in the game. Crane converted on the 2-point conversion pass to Scales for the final.

Crane connected on 12-of-23 passes for 166 yards and two touchdowns. Scales had six catches for 89 yards and two scores.

Gray completed 15-of-18 passes for 113 yards in the loss. He also rushed for 123 yards on 23 carries with a score.

Cole rushed for 93 yards on 13 carries with a touchdown. Jones had seven catches for 90 yards and a score.

“I thought our effort was great,” Collinsville coach Alan Beckett said. “We’re finally where we want to be as far as competing for four quarters.

“We preached ‘Let’s hang around as long as we can hang around.’ They’re (Cedar Bluff) used to a Mike Tyson flurry of punches and knockouts in first rounds, but I felt we forced them to do some things with other parts of their offense.

“Maybe as a team, the next time we’re in that kind of situation at the end, we can close the deal and not just be a bridesmaid.”