Kyree Koonce was never the lone featured running back for the first three years of his high school career. Whether it was at Buckingham County as a freshman and sophomore where he split time with former teammate Kenneth Johnson or last year where he shared time with Monticello alum T.J. Tillery before enduring a season ending injury. While he was the feature player for the Mustangs during the regular season this year, he never got a full work load, but still put up amazing numbers. But with Monticello and Koonce now in the playoffs there is now nothing to lose.
It’s safe to say, the training wheels, for lack of a better term, have officially come off.
“When we take care of ourselves, use our minds, don’t fumble, don’t have a bad snap, don’t have penalties, we’re a really good football team,” said Mustangs coach Jeff Woody. “When you turn around to No. 2 and hand it off, good things happen.”
Everyone wanted to know what the Mustangs’ senior back would do with more than 10 touches. Those that bundled up and embraced the cold in the stands on Friday night got an answer, and even still, Koonce didn’t play the whole game. Behind the speedy, and this week, impressively physical showing from Koonce, Monticello rode its hot hand to a 48-35 win as he set a school record with 350 yards on the ground and four touchdowns.
It took just two plays from scrimmage for Monticello to get on the board. After a 33-yard dash to open up the game from Darian Bates, Koonce broke loose for a 30-yard touchdown to make it 7-0 for the Mustangs in the first 30 seconds of the game. It was the start of a brilliant performance, and also a huge first half for Monticello.
“First of all, this comes with the offensive line,” Koonce said. “Without the offensive line opening (the holes) up then this record doesn’t get broken. You have to pay homage to the big guys up front.”
Two drives later Koonce punched in his second touchdown late in the first from three yards out to make it 14-0. After a 26-yard field goal from Jeanluc Lapierre and a Monticello interception, Koonce went for a 70-yard touchdown run to make it 24-0.
“I was just feeling really good on my feet,” Koonce said. “I knew if I could make a move on them I can make them miss so that’s what I tried to do. It resulted in positive gains.”
Of course, outside of Koonce’s monster evening, the story was that Tunstall simply wouldn’t go away. Monticello never let the visitors within more than 10 points of the lead, but in the second quarter up until the end, they allowed the Titans to stay in it until the final two minutes of play. The Trojans got on the board with a drive capped by a 4-ayard run from DaMarcus Wimbush. But Monticello got an immediate answer with Koonce picking up a 67-yard touchdown run. As if it was a prize fight, Tunstall turned around and scored on a 19-yard pass from Matt Pyrtle to Lucas Shoemaker, and then opened up the third quarter with a 39-yard run from Javion Terry to make it 31-21.
“When we don’t play efficiently you see what happens,” Woody said. “Now that’s a good football team (in Tunstall) and it’s the playoffs, the atmosphere wasn’t what I wanted and maybe with the cold our minds weren’t as sharp as I’d like them to be, that might had something to do with it, but give Tunstall credit. They (stayed in it) for a reason. We just have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and that’s a week-to-week thing.”
Sure enough though, when Monticello needed a big play, Koonce was there. While his 69-yard run in the third quarter didn’t go for a score, fullback Griffin Davis was able to finish the job with a 3-yard plunge. Less than two minutes later after a pick, Davis scored again, this time on a 9-yard rush to inflate the lead back up to 45-21 just midway through the third.
The rest of the contest belonged to Tunstall as Wimbush scored again on a short rushing touchdown at the beginning of the fourth. After Lapierre tacked on a 40-yard field goal, Terry made it a 13-point game after his 73-yard touchdown run with 5:08 to go. The Trojans earned one more possession to make things interesting, but couldn’t get the ball across midfield and the Mustangs were able to hold on for the win.
Koonce’s 350 yards on 21 attempts broke the Mustangs rushing record for a single game, set back in 2001 by Jimmy Stevens against Orange County. Monticello rushed for 419 yards as a team. Conversely, Tunstall’s Terry had an impressive night, going for 283 yards on 16 attempts.
Seventh seeded Monticello (9-2) travels to second seeded Magna Vista in the Region 3A West semifinals on Friday.
