Moments of the Year is a series of stories reflecting on performances, plays or games that occurred during the 2021-22 school year. Installations of the series will be released regularly throughout the summer, leading in to the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.
The stakes could not have been any higher for Beckley in the final week of the high school football season this past November.
A win would send the Flying Eagles to the playoffs for the first time since 2014. A setback would end the season for the boys from B-town.
Standing in the way of Beckley’s dream was defending Class AAA state champion South Charleston, but the Flying Eagles would not be denied.
Scoring three times in the final quarter, Beckley broke open a 21-21 game to roll past the Black Eagles 42-21.
“South Charleston is the defending state champions. They are a very good ball club that is very athletic. We went didn’t turn the football over and won the first five minutes of the game,” Sarrett said. “Like I have been telling them all year, win the first five minutes and don’t turn the ball over, good things will happen to you.”
While Beckley did not play out of desperation, it wasn’t afraid to pull out all stops to get the win.
Sarrett elected to go for it on a fourth-and-7 at the South Charleston 37-yard line in the game’s first drive. The ensuing 36 yard pass from Maddex McMillen to Elijah Redfern set up a one-yard plunge by McMillen.
It was not the last time that Sarrett would roll the dice on fourth down for a crucial score.
Facing fourth-and-11 and the game tied at 21 apiece in the fourth quarter, Sarrett put the ball in McMillen’s hands and the senior quarterback was true again.
This time it was a 36-yard strike to Keynan Richardson-Cook to give Beckley the lead for good with just over nine minutes to play. It was the second time that the Flying Eagles had stunned the Black Eagles out of a an empty backfield look.
“Same formation, just different pass routes,” Sarrett said. “We put that in and it worked, man. I’ve said it since the beginning of the season, we’ll go as far as Maddex McMillen wants to go.”
The Beckley defense sealed the game by forcing a turnover on downs which lead to Tylai Kimble score with 2:07 to play.
Less than a minute later, Kimble picked off SC quarterback Trey Dunn and went 35 yards for the final score of the game.
“Our defense has really stepped up here toward the end of the season,” Sarrett said after the game. “We’re just going to keep rolling on. Everybody is 0-0 next week.”
Beckley piled up 241 yards on the ground led by Kimble who had a game-high 112 yards on 12 carriers. McMillen scored on two, one-yard dives and completed six passes for 90 yards on only nine attempts.
“It’s a feeling that I have never had in the years I have been here and it is really cool to experience this,” McMillen said about the playoffs a couple of days after the win. “I think we all knew that we could do it as a team.”
