HANCEVILLE – An event created by the Hanceville Quarterback Club turned out to be very entertaining in its debut on Friday night at Ray Talley Stadium.
The Hanceville High School alumni flag football game consisted of former Bulldogs, with the purple team being players who graduated in odd years and the white team made up of players who got their diplomas in even years.
From the youngest- Caleb Hurst, Griffin Brown, Austin Coker and Heath Dean who graduated in 2015- to the oldest- James Fields and Tim Eskew, 1973 and 1974- the athletes played hard, and the game wound up being decided on the next to last snap of the contest.
Dean intercepted a pass in the end zone on a two-point conversion attempt and the Purple held off a White comeback by the score of 36-34.
Twenty-nine former Bulldogs took part, with 15 suiting up in the purple and 14 playing for the white side.
The game was played on a 50-yard field at Talley Stadium and featured quality play, considering many were on the gridiron for the first time in quite some time.
Team Purple took a 6-0 lead when Stephen Chandler hit Dean for a 37-yard score on the second play from scrimmage. They misfired on the two-point conversion pass.
A matching score by the White came with 1:44 left in the first quarter. Caleb Hurst connected with Zach Armstrong from 38 yards out after the Purple turned the ball over on downs at the White two-yard line. The conversion failed and the game was 6-6 following the first eight minutes of play.
Chandler connected for a pair of touchdowns in the second period to send the Purple in front to stay. He hit Brown up the middle for a 10-yard score with 5:44 to play in the period that made it 12-6.
Then, after the White gave the ball up on downs, Chandler and Ben Burkhart hooked up on a five-yard score. Once again, the Purple failed on the conversion, but went to halftime with an 18-6 advantage as Chandler threw for 168 yards in the first half on 11 of 22 completions with only one interception.
By halftime, Team White with Hurst and Joseph Umphrey combined for 102 yards through the air, but suffered two interceptions and gave up two other possessions on downs.
It became a 24-6 lead for the Purple when Dean caught a two-yard pass from Chandler with just 39 seconds left in the third.
Down by three scores, the White started a comeback.
They scored on the final play of the third when Kody Smith hauled in a 36-yard strike from Umphrey and Umphrey threw for Smith for the conversion to narrow the margin to 24-14.
A wild fourth quarter featured 210 yards combined passing by the two squads and five touchdowns.
Team Purple extended the margin to 30-14 on the first series of the fourth when Chandler tossed to Coker for 20 yards in the end zone.
That was answered by the White on a drive that consumed nearly three minutes. Umphrey ended it with a five-yard score to Greg Allred and a two-point score to Eskew made it 30-22. Eskew is currently the mayor of the town of Garden City.
Only eight seconds were needed for the Purple to score again. Brown went deep and caught a 40-yard bomb from Chandler to push the margin to 36-22 with 4:34 still to play in the game.
The next drive for the White ended in the end zone for their third consecutive score. The TD was 25 yards from Umphrey to Jeremy Hurst. The conversion was no good, but the White was down by one score at 36-28.
Chandler and the Purple moved the ball back toward the White end zone, only to have a pass picked off by Jamie Akin with 1:34 remaining. That gave the White a chance to take it the length of the field and create drama in this inaugural event.
On fourth down, Armstrong caught a seven-yard pass from Umphrey in the left corner of the end zone with two seconds to play.
But the chance to tie and force overtime ended when Umphrey's conversion pass in the back of the end zone was taken away by Dean for the purple.
They ran out the final two seconds and pulled off a competitive battle with the Purple getting 322 yards of passing offense to 296 for the White.
Proceeds from the game were donated to the quarterback club to assist the football team for the upcoming season.
The Bulldogs ended spring workouts on Wednesday coach Danny Miller said, and are now getting ready to go through conditioning after next week and get ready to open the 2016 season on August 19 with a game at Cold Springs.
Hanceville's opener at Ray Talley Stadium will be on Aug. 26 when they face the Addison Bulldogs.
