Ten minutes after Athens Drive’s 37-27 win over Cary, receiver Louis Wilder sat on the field by himself. His team had just scored 20 points in the fourth quarter to grab a come-from-behind win, but Friday’s game was even more of a roller coaster for Wilder.

Wilder’s aunt died the day before the game, and he was determined to play in honor of her.

At first, the game didn’t go as planned. Cary had just taken the lead in the fourth quarter, up 27-23. On the ensuing kickoff, the ball went to Wilder, but the receiver dropped it and couldn’t grab the ball back before Cary’s coverage team recovered the fumble deep in Athens territory.

Inconsolable on the sideline, Wilder got another shot. The Jaguars defense stopped Cary, and after a lateral to running back Kent Patton, Patton hurled the ball over a confused defense into the wide-open hands of Wilder, who ran easily in for a touchdown to reclaim the lead for Athens. The Jaguars sealed the win on the next possession, and for Wilder, the game was almost too much to handle.

“It means a lot, just to get that win, and now I’m speechless,” a teary-eyed Wilder said.

The win was big for the team as well. Athens got its first win using a young, untested quarterback and fought back from multiple deficits.

“We’ve had a lot of success the past two years, but we’ve been inundated with injuries this year,” coach Jeff Smouse said. “We’ve got a lot of starters walking around in street clothes.”

Cary used a ground attacked that featured three different backs, as the Imps sought their second win of the season. And after running all over Athens in the first half, using backs Andrew Hill, Bryan Wilson and Ralph Chapman, turnovers proved costly for the Imps, losing three fumbles to the Jaguars.

“We’ve been pretty good about getting fumbles this year and not giving the ball up,” mouse said. “Some of the fumbles were slips and them running into each other, but we hit pretty hard too.”

Smouse said the Jaguars had a tough time dealing with Cary’s size on the line, as Athens had trouble getting traction against the Cary running game.

“They had some big guys putting their bodies on us and that seemed to be the biggest problem,” Smouse said. “But I think our conditioning helped us some.”

Athens sophomore quarterback Ben Snotherly got his second start filling in for his injured older brother and finished the game with 126 yards passing.

“He was really stoked up at first,” Smouse said. “He had a couple passes that were too high over receivers’ heads, but he settled down. He came out and made some big plays for us.”

Smouse said he was proud his team could overcome a strong running game by the Imps, particularly Hill, who ran for 152 yards and two touchdowns. Cary finished with 321 rushing yards, but the turnovers proved to be too much.

“These kids never gave up,” Smouse said.

“We were down at halftime and these kids could have easily given up but they didn’t.”