Walton rallies to beat North Cobb, remain unbeaten

Walton’s three touchdowns to force a tie came in less than 5 minutes, with two of them the result of North Cobb turnovers.

“We came out and didn’t play very good football to start the game,” Walton coach Daniel Brunner said. “We had some guys who tried to do too much. When we settled down and just did our job, we started to execute and it showed up in the second quarter.”

North Cobb (3-3, 0-1) looked like it intended to make the game a runaway. The Warriors staked out a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, with Nick Grimstead’s 10- and 51-yard touchdown passes to TJ Smith.

North Cobb then made it 21-0 on Kaleb Narcisse’s 26-yard scoring pass to Steele Ingram early in the second quarter.

When the Warriors’ next drive stalled in a three-and-out, Walton (6-0, 1-0) struck on the next play from scrimmage on Jeremy Hecklinski’s 75-yard touchdown pass to Cameran Loyd.

North Cobb drove deep into Walton territory on the next possession, but Jordan Bride recovered a fumble. That set up another quick-strike score, a 73-yarder from Hecklinski to Loyd.

The next North Cobb possession ended with a sack and fumble on its second play, and Walton needed just three more plays to tie it on Hecklinski’s 25-yard pass to Bride midway through the second quarter.

Walton took a 28-21 lead on Hecklinski’s 30-yard touchdown pass to Loyd with 1:08 remaining before halftime.

North Cobb scored on its first possession of the second half, a five-play, 57-yard drive capped by a 5-yard touchdown rush by David Eziomume, but the point-after kick was short.

North Cobb gambled late in the game, going for it on a fourth-and-6 at its own 20, but a pass went incomplete. Walton took advantage of the short field, with Austin Williams scoring a 19-yard touchdown run three plays later, putting the Raiders up 35-27 with 1:47 to play.

North Cobb started its next drive at its own 31 and Narcisse guided the team as far as the Walton 31, but a fourth-and-10 pass only gained 8 yards and the Raiders ran out the clock.

Brunner was relieved afterward.

“That’s a really good team. Hats off to them,” he said. “I’m just really proud of our guys.”

It was the second gut-check game for Walton after its 44-24 win over then-unbeaten North Paulding a week earlier.

“We’ve got a resilient bunch here, and we’ve been tested two weeks in a row, and they’ve responded the right way,” Brunner said. “Someone asked before the game if I was nervous, and I said, ‘Not really. We’re going to find out who we are,’ and we’ve got a really good ball team.

“I didn’t expect to go down 21-0, but the response our kids displayed was excellent.”

Hecklinski started the night completing just one of his first nine passes, but he ended up 10-of-29 for 285 yards with four touchdowns.

“He had some plays he’d probably would have liked to have had back, but he had some really (darn) good ones,” Brunner said. “They were game-changers for us, so I feel like, if he’s on the field, we’ve got a chance to win.”

Walton will put its perfect record on the line against next week as it hosts Kennesaw Mountain, while North Cobb will go to Wheeler.