Final from Macon TD Club Middle Georgia Kickoff Classic: Dublin 55, Tattnall 0
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Chance Jones joked about being worried his team might be a snack for Dublin.
Well …
The teams exchanged fumbles on their opening possessions. From then on, the game belonged to Dublin.
The Irish got points on a scoop-and-score, and then just kept on scoring en route to a 55-0 win over Tattnall in the Macon Touchdown Club Middle Georgia Kickoff Classic opener Saturday at Mercer’s Five Star Stadium.
“Our offensive line had to be doing something,” Dublin head coach Roger Holmes said. “All of our backs …”
All of his backs seemed to get yardage and touchdowns.
Cortevyas Mitchell had 107 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries, Greg Jones ran for 98 on six with a score, and Zion Kemp gained 98 yards on two carries with a score.
Dublin ran for 482 yards on 30 carries, to 96 on 43 for Tattnall.
Things took a little time, really, to get out of hand.
The Trojans gained 16 yards on four plays, and then fumbled inside their 35. They dodged trouble when Dublin got to the 2 and gave it right back, 29 getting the recovery.
The Irish were mighty good, taking care of business against Tattnall in the Macon Touchdown Club Middle Georgia Kickoff Classic.
Video: Michael A. Lough/The Sports Report of Central Georgia, ww.centralgasports.com
But they dropped the punt snap on fourth and 1, and Dublin’s Romello Height took it 15 yards for the score with 5:55 left in the first quarter.
Dublin's Cortevyas Mitchell takes off on a long touchdown run en route to cracking the 100-yard mark.
Photo: Jason Halcombe/Dublin City Schools
Then after a three and out, Mitchell blasted around the right side for 45 yards and a score.
Tyler Strickland, among the top athletes to take the field all afternoon and evening, picked off a double pass, and quarterback Rodriguez Martin hit a wide open Strickland for a 42-yard touchdown six plays later, and 29 seconds into the second quarter, it was 21-0.
“We missed a few plays we had worked on in offense,” Jones said. “We didn’t execute, we didn’t block them.”
The Irish added 1-yard Mitchell score, set up by a 48-yard Martin scoot that inspired a Trojan or two to punch the turf in frustration. Then backup Zion Kemp showed a serious burst around the left side for a 70-yard score.
Tattnall mounted a drive and moved from its 21 – aided by a third-and-6 Dublin facemask and a 22-yard pass from Miles Morris to Bryce Beasley – to inside the 30, but the half ended with Stacy Sharpe clocking Morris from the front side on a pass attempt, Morris losing the ball as the clock ran out with a 35-0 score.
A dominant number: 7. The Irish scored on every possession but two, the first one (they fumbled) and the final one, which started with about just less than five minutes left.
Of course, Holmes saw plenty to grumble about.
“We had three kickoffs out of bounds, we fumbled a punt, we missed an extra point,” he said. “It just drives me crazy when we don’t execute. So we have plenty we’ve got to work on.”
Dublin steps up a bit Friday with a trip to Class AA Swainsboro, which is 1-0 and has won three of the past four meetings with the Irish.
but it's always fun counting things down in a 55-0 win.
Video: Michael A. Lough/The Sports Report of Central Georgia, www.centralgasports.com
Tattnall gets Trinity Christian, a GHSA rookie moving in from the GISA and doing well.
Dublin has scored 97 points in two wins over Class A teams that made the playoffs last year, and usually do. The margin was the Irish’s largest since they hammered Lovett 65-7 in the 2006 semifinals. Dublin went 14-0-1 that year and tied Charleton County in the championship.
The Irish also beat East Laurens 67-0, Vidalia 70-0, and Cook 60-0 that season, in which they gave up only 99 points in 15 games, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association.
Conversely, it was a stunner for a proud Tattnall program, evidenced often by the reactions of different Trojans, who exhibited anger at their play more than a few times.
Jones hopes his team follow that reaction, considering the Trojans have never been beaten that badly, according to GHSFHA records. The previous largest margin was a 48-0 loss to Southland in 1986 and Monroe Academy in 1974 in the old GISA days.
The worst loss since joining the GHSA was by 28 points to Aquinas in 2014.
“I hope so,” he said. “You want to see a little fire under them. You want to see a little fire when the going gets tough.”