Dangerously close to losing the momentum, and perhaps a big halftime lead, Poplar Bluff coach David Sievers repeated to his defense that they needed one stop.
Quinten Bell gave him two.
Bell grabbed two second half interceptions, including a jump ball in the endzone against a receiver nearly a foot taller, as the Mules went on to defeat Riverview Gardens 47-20 on Friday at Mules Stadium.
Bell earned the game ball afterward.
"Quinten gives up like 6 feet to everybody. He is just a little bitty guy but he has got a great heart. I was amazed," Sievers said. "I'm surprised people don't try to pick on him more than they do. Maybe now that he has shown out tonight, people won't pick on him as much. He has got a tremendous heart and offensively, I don't know how many yards his blocking contributed to tonight. He played a whale of a game."
The Mules led 33-8 at halftime, but then Riverview took the second half kickoff and scored in three plays. Then the Rams got an onside kick and scored again. In less than 3 minutes, the Mules lead had been cut to 13 points.
"This one is a hard one to figure out. We got a pretty commanding lead at halftime ... I told the defense, 'You guys go out and get a stop, we go down and score this one is over.' Next thing I know, we are sitting on our heels," Sievers said.
With 2 minutes left in the third quarter, Riverview was on the Poplar Bluff 27 when quarterback Donavan Savory dropped back and threw high and deep toward the end zone, setting up a jump ball between Bell and receiver Charles Rush-Bey.
"He's probably about 6-4 and I'm about 5-5. I knew it was going to be like that and I was just going to have to make a play when it came to it," Bell said.
Bell had inside position on the jump and Rush-Bey wasn't able to go over the top enough for the catch. Instead of Riverview cutting the lead to one score, the Mules had the ball at the 20.
"You read the tackle and he gave us a good read. I saw him drop back and I knew he was going out for a go route, so I had to make a play and came out on top," Bell said.
With 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Mules still ahead by 13, Savory ran for 30 yards to midfield and then handed off to Cornell McCintosh, but defensive tackle Kendric Gordon hit him hard and caused a fumble.
Cameron Sweeney dove and grabbed the recovery, and the Rams were called for a personal foul during a small scuffle after the play.
"I think it was a really good point in the game. It helped the defense definitely get their mojo back. Offense came out and took it to the goal," Sweeney said.
This put the ball at the Poplar Bluff 38, and the Mules marched and scored in five plays.
With under 4 minutes left in the game and the Mules now ahead by 21, the Rams tried Bell again. This time the go route pass was too far and Bell hauled in an over the shoulder catch.
Two plays later, Shemyron Townsend ran 69 yards for the final score of the night.
"Defensively early on, we just weren't playing to their speed. You can't duplicate their speed in practice. It took the guys a series or two to play at the tempo we needed to play at. We came out in the second half and it was early in the game tempo again," Sievers said. "I kept telling the defense, we need one stop and one score. That's all it took. It took us awhile to get that one stop and one score, but when we did, things went well for us."
Josiah Kilgore ran back the opening kick 81 yards for a touchdown and finished with 174 receiving yards and two touchdowns on seven catches. Much of it off bubble screens where Bell was throwing the key block. Kilgore also ran for 34 yards on six carries.
Isaiah Jackson had a big workload with 26 of Poplar Bluff's 45 carries for 127 yards and a touchdown. The powerful senior consistently got the ball in the second half as the Mules leaned on their lead. His longest carry was 19 yards.
Townsend had two carries for more than 20 yards despite only getting five attempts. He finished with 118 yards and three touchdowns, giving him four on the day.
Steven Pierce was 11 for 16 passing for 196 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions for the Mules for a 149.5 QB rating.
Poplar Bluff committed five turnovers, but finished -1 on turnovers. The Mules ran for 270 yards and passed for 204 while allowing 345 yards.