Kemper County running back Rondarius Gowdy tried his hardest to help make new head coach Josh Pulphus’ debut one to remember. And he did for part of the night, as he rushed for two touchdowns and 127 yards in the first half.

Northeast Lauderdale’s Kamerion Hulin, however, had other ideas in mind for Pulphus and the visiting Wildcats. 

Hulin saved his heroics for the second half.

Hulin scored three second-half touchdowns and ran in the go-ahead two-point conversion Friday night to give Northeast Lauderdale (1-0) a 35-34 victory over Kemper County (0-1) in both schools’ season openers. Northeast Lauderdale scored 29 unanswered points to erase a 34-6 halftime deficit. 

Michael McClinton scored on a 3-yard touchdown run with 2:54 remaining in the fourth quarter to put the Trojans within one point of tying the score at 34. But instead of going for the tie, Northeast coach Curt Blackburn called Hulin’s number. Hulin answered with the go-ahead two-point conversion.

“He carried it for us in the second half, and he was on a roll,” Blackburn said of Hulin. “I felt like we had momentum right there, and I figured if it went into overtime I knew our kids were getting gassed, and I knew (Kemper County) was tired as well. It was just one of those games where everybody gave everything that they had, and I knew we had a little bit of momentum so I wanted to take advantage of it.”

Northeast Lauderdale’s defense, which forced two second-half turnovers, hunkered down on its 19-yard line during the Wildcats ensuing possession and turned away Kemper County on fourth down when Wildcats’ quarterback De’Onte Rush’s pass ricocheted off of his receiver’s hands to force a turnover on downs with 14 seconds left in the game.

Hulin accounted for four touchdowns (one passing and three rushing). He scored on runs of one, two and 13 yards, and he threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to De’Uante Mason.

“The first half, we weren’t playing together and coach chewed us out in the locker room and it opened our eyes a little bit,” Hulin said. “We came out and executed as a team. It was nothing but teamwork.”

After going 2-9 last year behind dropping a number of games in the final minutes, Hulin said the experiences from those losses gave the Trojans all the motivation needed Friday to not begin this year with a similar fate.

“You learn from your mistakes,” Hulin said. “You learn, you get better and you keep fighting every day.”

Kemper County overcame five penalties on its opening drive to take a 6-0 lead with 4:15 left in the first quarter when Trajan Tanksley ran 20 yards for a touchdown to cap a 56-yard scoring drive.

Gowdy scored on runs of 18 and 76 yards on Kemper County’s next two drives to give the Wildcats a 20-6 lead with 7:02 remaining in the second quarter.

Rush threw his first touchdown of the year on the Wildcats’ fourth drive of the game when he found Quanderius Bohannon streaking down field for a 40-yard score. Rush connected with Bohannan again with six seconds remaining in the first half from seven yards out to give his team a 34-6 halftime lead.

With Northeast Lauderdale’s offense gaining traction in the second half, the Trojan defense pitched in with two second-half turnovers courtesy of an interception by Joheim Smith and a fumble recovery. 

Friday’s loss snaps a 12-game Kemper County win streak. 

“I told them at halftime that Northeast is a great team because they went through the fire, and we knew they weren’t going to quit,” Pulphus said. “But being a young team, we kind of got complacent. We just have to learn to get better and keep fighting.”

Northeast Lauderdale hosts Enterprise at 7 p.m. Friday, while Kemper County travels to Quitman at 7 p.m. Friday. 

“I just want to say right now, for my football team, that was one of the best displays of heart and determination that I’ve seen,” Blackburn said. “We were down 34-6 at the half, and for them to come out and fight and think we had a chance, I’m just proud of the effort of our team.”