Scott Tate took a victory stroll.

That's how Cross Creek's coach felt after a 27-21 win last Friday at South Effingham.

The 4-0 Razorbacks extended their best start in history against a program that had been to the state playoffs the past five seasons.

Receiver Emory Wilson threw a touchdown to Eric Eitson off a double-reverse pass with 36 seconds left to play for the win, which gives the team a shot at 5-0 against Richmond Hill (1-3) tonight.

"We were down 21-13 with five minutes left," Tate said. "Having to score twice in the final five minutes left no margin for error. Every throw, every block and every route had to be perfect. One mistake and it was all going down the drain."

There was a drive given new life on a roughing-the-passer call on fourth down. There was Eitson's interception as time expired. It's still hard for Tate to piece it all together.

"After the game I told my coaches to get the kids on the buses and drive to their gym to change," he said. "I wasn't getting on a bus for a while."

Tate played at Samford before Terry Bowden left the program to coach Auburn. He was a senior starter on the 1991 team that went 12-2 and made it to the NCAA I-AA semifinals. That's still the best record in Samford history.

The Alabama native wears the same tie to school every game day, but never the same shirt. He wears the same hat to every Thursday practice. The rituals show he wants to keep a good thing going.

"I'll remember that win last Friday when I'm 85 years old watching my grandkids," he said.

That's why he needed a walk.

"My coaches were like 'We can't let you walk back to the gym,' Tate said. "I wanted to walk up there. I had to catch my breath and gather my thoughts. I enjoyed that walk. I enjoyed the feeling of not that we won. But the way we won."

He likes to say he knows one absolute about his team.

"We'll put our feet on the field every Friday and play as hard as we can until the final whistle blows," he said. "We may not do a lot else, but that's the one thing I will know we will do every night."

While he walked, his mind drifted to the course his program is heading. Cross Creek lost 43 of its first 50 games. The Razorbacks have now won 14 of their past 25.

Seniors Eric Eitson and Patrick Province were starters on the 2005 team that checked off a lot of history: First winning season. First playoff berth. First Homecoming Game victory.

"This ride is 150 percent better," Eitson said. "That '05 year we didn't have as much leadership. We had one great leader in Donald Hudson. But this year we have about 20 Donald Hudson leaders. We're way different in work ethic. We see someone slacking and we pick up that guy's slack and keep going."

This roster is filled with guys who ask to run extra after practice. They track their coaches down in the halls to talk about what they saw on the latest film.

Province is the team's hardest worker and go-to running back.

"Any good team has players who know their roles," said Province, who bench-presses 325 pounds. "That '05 team still had a lot of guys who wanted to be stars like Peyton Manning. But on this team no man stands taller than any other man. That's a team."

The best example of that is the role reversal that has sparked this start.

Emory Wilson started last year at quarterback. Junior Keenan Grissett starts this year. He basically won the job while Wilson was playing baseball during spring practice this year.

But there is zero animosity.

"At first I thought it was a demotion," Wilson said, who's tied for the area lead with four interceptions. "But now I see it was a move to help the team. Coach saw something I did not see. He saw a quarterback who could make us better than I could. Keenan can run and throw. He helps us more. There was a place I could move that make us better, too. That's what this team is all about."

Grissett's skills have allowed the team to run the spread sets it had so much success with when Hudson was at quarterback. That offense did not fit Wilson's skills.

Grissett (6-foot-2, 205) has shown poise in his first year. He has a knack for reading coverage that's allowed him to complete 56 percent of his passes for 667 yards.

"I've never seen a player develop so fast at a position," Cross Creek defensive coordinator Tracey Gamble said. "If he throws an interception, he won't be pouting. He'll come back the next series and make three or four big plays. That kid could throw for 600 yards in a game and be the same humble kid he was before."

Asked about next week's showdown with Washington County, which has beaten Cross Creek by an average of 43 points per game every time the schools have met, Grissett's answer is the right answer for any team trying to change the culture of a loser image.

"We can't think about Washington County," he said. "We've got to get by Richmond Hill first. People might say Richmond Hill isn't supposed to beat us. But we must make sure they don't. Or that Washington County game won't mean a thing."