Kamerion Hulin sat with the rest of his Trojan teammates in the locker room last Friday night staring a 34-6 deficit in the face.

It was halftime of Northeast Lauderdale’s season opener against Kemper County, and it looked like the Wildcats were going to ride a 28-point lead into a blowout victory on the Trojans’ home field.

Hulin, though, gave a halftime speech to fire up the team. Then he let his play do the talking in the second half, as Hulin tallied three touchdown in the final two quarters and ran the deciding two-point conversion to help the Trojans to a 35-34 victory.

That victory seemed like a tall task at the half, but Northeast Lauderdale head coach Curt Blackburn said he saw something in Hulin’s speech that gave him hope.

“He’s a good ball player — we knew that going into the season,” Blackburn explained. “He took the leadership role at halftime after I had my spiel with the kids, and he told them we didn’t work all summer to come out here and just give a game away. 

“From that point forward, he kind of took over the ball game. He runs the ball hard anytime it’s in his hands, and he made really good decisions.”

The approach Hulin took with his teammates at the half was an interesting one. He noted the Wildcats faced a 28-point deficit. He then pointed to the Trojans’ 28-8 victory against Union Aug. 11 during the East Central Community College jamboree in an exhibition that lasts approximately two quarters’ time.

“I told them we scored 28 in one half the week before against Union, so why not do it again?” Hulin recalled. “I told them we had to be ready to play because (Kemper County was) ready to play, so we had to turn it on.”

Hulin did it all in the second half, as he finished with two rushing touchdowns and a passing touchdown. No matter what defensive look Kemper County gave him, Blackburn said Hulin was able to excel and be that go-to player the Trojans needed.

“A lot of his carries were passes,” Blackburn said. “We were down 28, so I was trying to throw the ball. He’d scramble out of some pressure situations that allowed him to make big gains, and when the defensive backs started playing coverages, he had plenty of room to run, so they kind of had to pick their poison. He had a couple of big passes to De’Uante Mason and Jarvis Cook that kind of loosened up the defense and kept them honest, and having that dual-threat guy was pretty big.”

Though he said running the ball is his biggest strength as a player, Hulin doesn’t mind doing other things on the field if the situation calls for it.

“If it involves football, I love it,” Hulin said.

It also helps the coaches when opposing defenses have to plan for more than one possibility out of a player like Hulin.

“It helps tremendously when the kids can improvise and make the best out of a bad situation,” Blackburn said. “It’s a lot easier to call plays, that’s for dang sure.”

While it might have been human nature to just ride out the clock in the second half and take the loss, Hulin said that wasn’t even a possibility in his mind.

“The coaches teach us to never give up,” Hulin explained. “We can’t give up on each other.”

That’s the attitude Blackburn wants to see, especially when it leads to his team scoring 29 unanswered points to snatch a victory.

“It lifts my spirits a lot,” Blackburn said. “One thing we teach kids is to never give up. It doesn’t matter if it’s football or life. When you think the odds are stacked against you, you can always come back. To see the kids live that message out through the ball game was really special.”

The win won’t afford for Northeast Lauderdale to become complacent, as the Trojans (1-0) will host Enterprise (0-1) Friday for Week 2.

“It makes us push harder and want it more,” Hulin said. “We just have to get better each and every week. We have to put the past behind us and get better this week. They’re a good team, and they’re going to be ready to play.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday.