Enterprise stuns No. 2 Auburn 17-16 with late FG

Enterprise stuns No. 2 Auburn 17-16 with late FG

Andrew Pickard kicked a 19-yard field goal as time evaporated to give No. 5-ranked Enterprise a 17-16 win over shocked No. 2 Auburn Friday night at Duck Samford Stadium.

The Wildcats scraped together only four first downs all night but vacuumed up four Tigers turnovers and converted three of them into all 17 points.

The most grievous wound of all for Auburn was quarterback Jackson Kilgore’s interception to Wildcats linebacker J.T. Hooten with 2:21 to go as the Tigers tried to run out the clock with a 16-14 lead.

On third-and-9, Kilgore saw running back Omar Mabson work his way open on a wheel route but underthrew the ball and it floated down to Hooten, who intercepted it at Auburn’s 25 and eagerly took it to the end zone. The touchdown was taken away on a block in the back but Enterprise had an easy view of victory from Auburn’s 15.

Three-star Indiana commitment Keion Dunlap ran the ball five straight times from the Wildcat formation to put the ball at the 1 with three seconds to go.

With the ball just inside the left hash mark, Pickard’s kick left no doubt and sucked the breath out of 8,000 pleading fans jammed into the stadium.

“It was just a kick,” said Pickard, the ball he kicked tucked under his left arm. “I told myself it was just a kick, just line up and kick it. My dad tells me to treat every extra point like a 40-yard field goal and every 40-yard field goal like an extra point.”

The Tigers fought back from a 14-0 first-quarter deficit to take a 16-14 lead on Towns McGough’s 39-yard field goal with 9:32 remaining. McGough also kicked field goals of 50 and 29 yards in the comeback.

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