Pine grabs signature win over Amite, 28-26

Pine opened the 2022 football season at 5-0.

Then came a road game at Albany, a disappointing 29-21 loss in a key District 7-3A contest.

Then came a daunting task against Friday night defending Class 2A state champion Amite.

Then came a two-score deficit.

Then came the best of the Pine Raiders, who rallied to score a huge 28-26 district win.

Jalon Robinson put Amite on top with a 21-yard touchdown pass to to make it 7-0 early.

The lead grow to 14-0 when Robinson hit Jeremy Morgan with an 80-yard touchdown pass and Amite had a 14-0 lead.

Pine answered as James Owens ran 50 yards to set up a 10-yard touchdown run by Von Johnson to cut the deficit to 14-7.

Amite responded as Robinson hit Ashton Terrell with a 50-yard pass before Terrell scored on a five-yard touchdown to make it 20-7.

Then came the Raiders, scoring to make it 20-14 o a five-yard run by Johnson before taking their first lead on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Luke Spears to Cameron Brown to increase the lead to 28-20 but the Warriors were not finished.

Robinson ran 12 yards for a score and Amite decided to go for two and the tie but Robinson was sacked by Tyron Lee to secure a huge win for Pine.

Speaking on Ken Trahan’s Original Prep Football Report Friday night, Pine coach Bradley Seal was excited about beating a great program in Amite.

“When those guys came in our district, I told our guys they were going to be here,” Pine coach Bradley Seal said. “They will be here. Eventually, we have to rise up and beat them and meet the challenge. We did that tonight. We just battled. We battled all year.”

Pine started well last season before struggling late to finish 6-4.

“We were very young last year,” Seal said. “We were 5-1 last year going into Kentwood. We lost and couldn’t get it back going. We got beat by Albany last week and we had to wonder if it was a case of here we go again. I knew we would be ready.”

The Raiders appeared poised to make a nice run the rest of the way.

“We just kept grinding,” Seal said. “We have injuries moving forward but we are as good as we can do. We will go back to ground zero and focus on the next challenge.”

Pine (6-1, 1-1) travels to Jewel Sumner for another tough district matchup next week.

Amite (4-3, 1-1) will host Albany next Friday night.