Thursday night in Lee Hedges Stadium felt different, even as Southwood took the field against Arcadia.
The Cowboys came into the game carrying a 46-game losing streak — their last official victory coming 2,141 days ago in a win over Parkway during Week 8 of the 2019 season.
But, with a 16-15 victory, Southwood now has a new streak rolling: a 1-0 win streak.
“This is for Southwood High School and the community,” declared an emotional DeAumante Johnson following his historic debut after accepting the job earlier this year.
The evening didn’t start off great for the Cowboys, as Arcadia capitalized on a Bryce Gates interception with a clock-eating march down the field that found the end zone on an 11-yard touchdown run by Ryheem Abney midway through the first quarter.
Southwood answered with a scoring drive of its own, capped by a 13-yard touchdown run from Roger Moore. A successful two-point conversion pass from quarterback Jayden Carter to sophomore James Harris gave Southwood the 8-7 lead, and the home crowd erupted.
The Cowboys’ defense stepped up and forced a punt after a crucial tackle for loss on third down by junior Kyron Davenport, but Southwood couldn’t finish the drive before halftime.
On Arcadia’s opening drive of the second half, the Cowboys’ defense once again answered the call. With the Hornets knocking at the door on the Southwood 20-yard line, the Cowboys made a crucial fourth-down stop.
After a short drive, Southwood was forced to punt. But a fumble on the return gave the Cowboys the ball at Arcadia’s 33-yard line, and the momentum was building. A few plays later,Carter found Harris again on a crossing route, and the young receiver dashed up the sideline to extend the lead to 16-7 with a subsequent two-point conversion catch by senior receiver Chris Sheppard.
Arcadia wasn’t finished, mounting a methodical drive that ended in a 7-yard touchdown catch and misdirection run for the 2-point conversion — both by Gates — that cut the lead to 16-15.
Southwood went into clock-control mode and burned as much time as possible before turning the ball over on downs with less than two minutes remaining.
Facing a 78-yard journey for the potential game-winning score, Arcadia was forced to throw.
Hearts stopped when the Hornets connected on a deep pass, but as fate would have it, two seniors who had never won a game at Southwood came up big when it mattered most. Defensive back Kaden Davis made the heads-up play to strip the ball, and linebacker Christopher Daniel recovered it to seal the victory.