Sometimes in the game of football, when a play doesn’t work as planned, it can be a good thing.

That’s what happened Friday, when Sandy Creek, down 16-10 to Shaw, called a play late in the fourth quarter that was intended to be a pass from quarterback Rio Johnson to wide receiver Jarrett Davis over the middle.

Instead, Johnson, pressured in the pocket, avoided a couple of defenders and had wide receiver Alex Chisum running back toward him. Johnson waved Chisum back to the end zone, fired a pass to him and Chisum ran into the end zone for a 36-yard touchdown with 10 seconds remaining to complete the host Patriots' comeback victory, 17-16.

“We were trying to hit Jarrett Davis down the middle,” Creek coach Chip Walker said. “Rio eluded a couple of defenders ... and he found Chisum for the touchdown. The play didn’t go as we had planned it, but it worked out for us.”

It was Creek’s first victory over Shaw in school history. Creek entered the game 0-4 against Shaw.

The Patriots’ offense piled up huge numbers.

Creek (2-0) finished with 420 yards of total offense (253 passing, 167 rushing); Johnson completed 13 of 25 passes for 253 yards and one touchdown; running back Rajion Neal rushed 29 times for 140 yards and one touchdown; and wide receiver Devon Hughes had five catches for 122 yards receiving (a 24.4-yards-per-catch average).

Walker, though, was disappointed that his team didn’t score more points.

“Our yardage output was really good,” Walker said. “I felt like we could have scored twice as many points as we did, though. We’re still making way too many mistakes.”

A 26-yard field goal by Zach Lopez in the first quarter and a 3-yard touchdown run by Neal in the second quarter handed Creek a 14-0 lead.

Shaw responded with a 2-yard touchdown run with 3 minutes remaining in the second quarter.

Creek was plagued by turnovers in the second half; Johnson was intercepted twice, and running back Lucky Charleston lost a fumble, which led to Shaw’s second touchdown of the night, a 1-yard, go-ahead run with 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Seconds later, Johnson and Chisum combined to bail out Creek.

Shaw finished with 331 yards of total offense (152 passing, 179 rushing), but Walker was pleased with his defense’s ability to hold Shaw to one touchdown that didn’t follow a turnover.

“Our defense did a great job,” Walker said. “Going into the game, if you said we would hold them to eight points, excluding their touchdown off the turnover, I would have been shocked. Shaw has a very good offensive team.”

Creek had four players on defense with at least seven tackles: linebacker Matt Solomon (12 tackles, one for loss), safety Russell Bonner (10, one for loss), cornerback Julian Holmes (eight tackles, one pass defensed) and linebacker Michael Spaulding (seven tackles, two for loss, one fumble recovery).

Defensive tackle Alex Green also had a fumble recovery for Creek.