HAYMER SCORES 5 TIMES FOR BEECH

Mt. Juliet’s hopes of a perfect regular season and an outright District 9AAA championship came crashing to Earth Thursday as Beech converted a gutsy two-point conversion in the second overtime for a 47-46 win over the Bears.

Mt. Juliet fell to 9-1 on the regular season and awaits word from the TSSAA on a first round playoff matchup. Beech improved to 8-2 overall.

Mt. Juliet trailed 19-10 at intermission and rallied back behind the sterling play of quarterback Reed Gurchiek. The senior completed 15-of-23 passes for 252 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for three scores.

Beech looked to put the game on ice as tailback Travis Haymer rambled 48 yards from a TD with 1:17 to go in the game and a 32-26 lead.

However Beech kicker Clayton Ream missed on two PAT opportunities as Mt. Juliet was called for roughing the kicker on the first one. His second attempt slid wide left -- opening the door for the Bears.

Running the hurry-up offense to near perfection, Gurchiek led Mt. Juliet 70 yards to paydirt with no timeouts. With the clock showing 00:00 he connected with wideout Teraes Clemmons for a TD to bring his team to within two points.

Gurchiek then hit Chris Brazile on a hot pass for the two-point conversion to send the game into overtime at 32-all.

After the two teams swapped scores and PATs in the first overtime, Mt. Juliet scored on its first play of the second OT as Gurchiek hit Vaughn Cornelia in the back of the endzone from 10 yards out. Tyler Emmetts’ PAT gave Mt. Juliet a 46-39 lead.

Haymer scored for the Bucs on a fourth and goal from the two, breaking two tackles at the line of scrimmage.

Beech left the offense on the field and turned to Haymer again -- who slammed off left tackle for the game-winning two-pointer.

Haymer shredded the Mt. Juliet defense for 221 yards and five touchdowns on 28 carries.