When Evans High senior Jiah Walls emerged from a scrum of players with the football in his hands, the east bleachers and visitors sidelines at Jones High Field went crazy as fans and players watched the linebacker race 89 yards for the game-winning touchdown.

Walls’ heroics capped a furious fourth-quarter rally by the Trojans, ranked No. 14 in the Sentinel’s Super 16 Coaches Poll, as they knocked of the top-ranked Tigers 28-25.

Jones (2-1) was about to go in for the go-ahead touchdown, with a first-down-and-4 play (after a penalty) at the Evans 9-yard line. But Jones quarterback Dereon Coleman was hit by a swarm of Evans defenders, and Walls came out of the pile with football and ran it the other way.

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“I knew he was going to keep it and run,” Walls said of Coleman. “I just kinda wrapped him up and I saw [the ball] and I was like, ‘That’s mine. That’s money.’  It’s awesome. We’ve been waiting for this all summer.”

It was the first victory for Evans (2-1) over Jones in Orlando’s Soul Bowl rivalry since 2009, an 18-6 Saturday morning Evans victory at Camping World Stadium. Saturday’s loss was Jones first in 22 regular season games since 2023.

Evans coach Karlos Odum has talked about the desire to bring back the Trojans tradition of the past and Saturday’s stunning win was a good start. Evans owns a 35-13 advantage in the series, dating to 1967 — but had lost its previous games against Jones.

“We made it harder than it should have been, but I’m proud of these kids,”  Odum said. “They kept fighting. It’s just a testament to these kids who worked so hard all summer.

“This was just a game in the schedule and even though I try to downplay a lot of stuff to these kids, I know this is important to them and they can enjoy this. This is what it’s all about.”

The teams went back-and-forth during the first three quarters. Jones led 17-14 going into the final quarter. Both sides made mistakes in early parts of the game and they combined for 10 first half penalties.

The Jones defense appeared to find its rhythm, allowing minus 4 yards of offense in the third period. Evans running back Li’Darious Pryor wasn’t fazed. The senior patiently waited his turn and on his 12th carry of the game, he found a seam and burst up the middle for 40-yard touchdown run to give Evans a 21-17 lead with 5:05 left in the game.

Walls’ strip-fumble touchdown five plays later and the Trojans were en route to the upset.

“Too many mistakes in key moments,” Jones assistant head coach Dale Williams said. “That’s a great team over there [Evans]. We told our guys, it doesn’t matter who you are on paper, it doesn’t matter what you have, it’s a rivalry. You can only control what you can control and we didn’t do that today.”

Odum said it was a good bounce-back for Evans after the Trojans lost the season opener to West Orange 28-18.

“We ain’t there yet, but this is a big step forward,” Odum said.

Chris Hays can be found on X.com @OS_ChrisHays.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/09/06/no-14-evans-pulls-off-huge-upset-over-no-1-jones-28-25/