Sometimes the hole is just a little too deep.
Blue Ridge put together a wild rally in the closing three minutes against North Cross Friday, but fell 28-26 when a two-point conversion failed with five seconds to play.
The Barons found themselves down 28-13 with 5:04 left when North Cross scored from 39 yards out and in real trouble after a quick interception gave North Cross the ball and the lead.
The Blue Ridge defense stepped up though, forced a turnover on downs and with the help of three timeouts, the Barons took over.
That’s when Xavier Kane went to work, engineering an eight play, 80-yard drive that included a 33-yard toss to Keegan Kozack and a five-yard touchdown toss to Jack Charboneau with 2:31 to play. That led to an onsides kick attempt and the Barons recovered, allowing Kane to get another shot. Kane led the Barons 50 yards in a matter of seconds, hitting Sammy Fort for 22 yards to get it started, Icesys Lewis for another 17 and then Michael Asher for a touchdown with five seconds to play.
The Barons went for two but the pass fell incomplete. North Cross recovered the second onsides kick to end it.
Kane finished with 240 yards and three touchdowns on 18-for-37 passing. Fort accounted for 152 yards of offense with six catches and 8.5 yards per carry on the ground. Maliq Brown caught a touchdown and hauled in 48 yards.
Andy Nwaoko notched 10 tackles on the day while Xavier Kane had nine stops. Caleb Warner and Tramell Thompson each had eight stops.
