By Tim Mastro

MIDDLETOWN — If a first half of football was ever going to rattle a team, Smyrna High’s first half on Saturday was it.

There were penalties abound, the defense was looking for answers and, to top everything off, the Eagles thought they scored on the final play of the second quarter only to have it taken off the board.

But there were still 24 minutes left to play. And the Eagles owned the second half.

Devin DeMoe caught a 17-yard touchdown from Cameron Edge with 50 seconds left to complete the comeback as Smyrna won at St. Georges 30-24 in a Class 3A matchup on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles out-scored the Hawks 22-8 in the second half to improve to 4-2 overall.

Brandon West clinched the game for Smyrna with a sack that forced a fumble on St. Georges’ final drive. Nate Chandler pounced on the loose ball, allowing Smyrna to take one kneel-down for time to run out.

“We came out soft but we put in too much work to let it all go away,” said West, a sophomore defensive lineman. “So we had to come out with energy in the second half. The energy shifted in the second half and we played lights out.”

Smyrna’s defense buckled down in the second half, forcing three consecutive three-and-outs.

It gave the offense some time to figure things out after scoring just once in the first half.

Wayne Knight rushed for an 8-yard touchdown with 1:46 left in the third quarter before Edge connected with Yamir Knight across the middle and the wide receiver did the rest, going 93 yards untouched to give Smyrna a 24-21 lead with 10:08 remaining.

St. Georges responded with its best drive of the second half, reaching the red zone before it stalled out. The Hawks were able to tie on a 32-yard Jorge Lopez field goal but left too much time on the clock for the Eagles.

Yamir Knight returned the ensuing kickoff to midfield. Three plays later, Edge lobbed the game-winning pass to DeMoe in the front corner of the end zone.

“I have a lot of confidence in this group,” DeMoe said. “I trust my quarterback, he’s the best in the state, I believe.”

Edge and DeMoe thought they had combined for a touchdown at the end of the first half too. It looked to be a 37-yard score as time expired in the second quarter but one referee signaled touchdown while another ruled DeMoe was out at the one.

The potential touchdown ended up being just a long pass play after the referees conferred. Smyrna players were visibly frustrated after the decision, but returned from the locker room focused.

“We showed that we can come back and fight no matter what,” Edge said. “We can rebound and get ourselves together. We still put up 30 points, that’s not a common thing for teams to do. If we would’ve came out strong off the bus we could’ve scored 50. But not every game is clean. Every championship team is going to have a tough game and a game like this is probably a game that we needed.”

The lone Smyrna touchdown in the first half came on 19-yard pass from Edge to DeMoe on its second drive of the game.

“I think we had a good game plan coming in, we just didn’t execute well which is surprising because we had an extra week of practice,” Smyrna coach Mike Judy said. “It’s just one of those things, you got to take it play-by-play. Luckily we got into halftime not complete out of it. Those moments can get a little crazy internally but our team did a great job and didn’t fall apart.”