CRESTVIEW — As the fourth quarter of Niceville’s and Crestview’s penultimate regular season game began, members of the Bulldog band shot confetti into the sky.
This certainly belied the fact that, at the time, Crestview was down 20-10, and the Eagles were within just 30 yards of another score.
Four plays later, Colby Tuthill navigated the technicolored turf for his second touchdown of the day, a 1-yard plunge to stretch the lead to 27-10.
The confetti deluge would be the last of the Crestview celebrations, as Niceville overcame a slow start and two red zone turnovers to win 34-10, taking with it a district title and critical home field advantage in the playoffs.
“Oh, it feels great, it feels great,” cornerback Chase Outzen, the bedrock of the Eagle secondary, said. “I’d hate to have to travel down south for playoffs, my first time in the playoffs in high school.”
The band’s confetti deluge, premature as it was, was not the first time the Bulldogs had allowed a little celebration.
A 27-yard field goal with three seconds left in the first half sent the Dawgs into the locker room down just 12-10.
The specter of last year’s repeat, the first time Crestview had beaten Niceville in three decades, hung over the Eagle sideline.
The howls reverberating from the Crestview locker room were visceral and rowdy, the guttural roars of an underdog challenging a giant.
“We’re used to going into the half up big,” said quarterback Colby Tuthill, who scored three touchdowns in the second half. “It’s not what we’re used to but we got it back.”
A Shi’Kim Coward fumble in the red zone on the Eagles’ opening possession did nothing to assuage either of the moods.
But the Niceville defense was impassible.
Punt, punt, punt, interception, went the next four Crestview drives.
On a night where 34 points is considered “slow” for the Eagle offense, the defense provided the impetus.
“It just shows that when you have demeanor, perseverance, and just hunger to win a football game, you’re going to go out there and do it,” Outzen said.
“You just play the game, be determined, make plays.”
Meanwhile Coward, who rolled up 197 yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries, churned out nine runs of five yards or more in the second half alone. And Tuthill, who accounted for just five passing yards and four rushing in the first half, lobbed a 30-yard bomb to Eli Stove for a score and ran for two more.
“We changed a few things with the run game, a few things with the offensive scheme,” Tuthill said. “We just started getting a few things working.”
Niceville’s district title and playoff home-field advantage were locked up as the backups in the eggshell white jerseys took the field for Crestview’s final plays.
Minutes later, another Eagle was picking off another pass, the fourth Crestview turnover on the evening, and the game was over.
Alas, those in the white and maroon shed the troubled looks and slumped shoulders.
Zander Huff, he of the first Niceville interception, an out-leaping grab in the fourth quarter, jumped up and clapped his hands, and soon his fellow Eagles followed suit.
Another title had just been won. A 24-point victory had been earned. And it was Halloween, after all.
There was merriment — and candy — to be had.
“We’re about to go celebrate,” Outzen said. “Business on the way here, party on the way back.”
“We gotta go eat,” Tuthill added. “That’s for sure.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Eagles topple Bulldogs