Two weeks ago, Cole Keylon was forced out of Harrison’s playoff victory with an injury.
“I tore a tendon in my ankle. I have a bone contusion on my shin and I sprained my MCL,” Cole said.
Because of that, he could only watch as his teammates came back to beat Camden-Fairview.
Seven days later, Cole was back in uniform to play White Hall, pushing the pain aside for another go with his teammates.
“I was really nervous. They told me I had a broken leg and when I found out I could suit up one more time with my boys, guaranteed, it was a great feeling. [We] wanted to get one more and we did that,” Cole said.
With a knee brace on his right leg, Cole showed hardly any signs of injury, running for 145 yards and a score.
But it was his left arm, and a fourth quarter touchdown pass that Harrison fans will remember forever.
“He’s a doggone winner you know,” said Harrison Head Coach Joel Wells. “We practice [the two minute drill] all the time, we’re in our empty [backfield] package and we had some things, but then he made some plays.”
“We stopped them on that third down, I was like ‘we get the ball back, they made a mistake. We’re going to go score’,” Cole said.
Cole’s game-winning touchdown toss to Cy Madden in the final minute came two plays after a different go-ahead touchdown to Noah Moix was wiped away by a penalty.
When Cole got his second chance, he knew he couldn’t miss.
“It’s one of those, especially in basketball you’ve got a wide open three pointer, and they’re so open you don’t want to miss him,” Cole said. “Maybe you overthrow him, you underthrow him. It’s a little nerve-wracking.”
The TD capped a 66-yard drive executed without any timeouts, and sent the Gobs on their way to the final four.
“That’s the fourth [win] we’ve had this year kind of just like that,” Wells said. A little Crooked Creek Magic I think.”
Crooked Creek Magic is what Harrison fans and those within the program call the team’s ability to make big plays late in games.
But Cole says that magic isn’t just luck.
“This team just never quits. That might be the magic.” Cole said. “We play harder than everybody we play, we’re outsized every week and we still come out and whip ‘em.”
Now two wins separate the Gobs from a state title.
Cole’s message to his teammates is simple.
“We’ve got to beat the private schools, and we can do it,” he said.
The Goblins host Little Rock Christian Friday night.
