Saturday's Daily News 'n Notes: State XC; HS FB; full UGA-UF coverage, state colleges; Henley; CFB, NASCAR, more

November 8, 2020 Central Georgia Sports Report

Saturday’s Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.

ICYMI: Central Georgia’s best Friday night high school football coverage, with the who and how and why.

Scoreboard

High School

Football

Perry 36, Westside 19

The Panthers trailed 12-10 at the half, but got the offense going and held Westside to only a fourth-quarter touchdown to stay undefeated in Region 4-4A. The Panthers trailed 12-10 at halftime and took the lead early in the third on Makeil Kendrick’s 1-yard run, adding a 70-yard TD pass from Lane Rucker to Jason Glover late in the third. A 35-yard score from Rucker to Daequan Wright midway through the fourth put the Panthers in clear control, and Quintavious Kendrick added some icing shortly after that with a 23-yard fumble return for a touchdown. The Panthers (4-4) are now tied with Baldwin at 4-0 atop the region. Westside fell to 3-3 and 1-2, and can pretty much seal a playoff spot with a win Thursday over Spalding (1-7/1-3).

Peach State College Football

Florida 44, Georgia 28

The game bore no resemblance to what took place one day short of 40 years ago.

Georgia’s highly touted defense was lit up by Florida quarterback Kyle Trask, who had 341 yards and four touchdowns at halftime and went over the 400-yard mark in the third quarter.

Through three quarters, Trask has connected with 10 different receivers. He lost standout tight end Kyle Pitts (2-59, 1 TD) in the second quarter after a major helmet-to-helmet hit by Lewis Cine, who was groggy, and ejected.

It was 38-21 at halftime.

Georgia quarterback Stetson Bennett suffered a shoulder/collarbone injury in the first half and returned, but continued to struggle, more with overthrows this time. He was pulled for D’Wan Mathis, who fared no better. Both dropped on-target snaps, for one thing.

Mathis did hit Peach County’s Kearis Jackson with a 25-yard TD pass in the final minute of the third quarter, pulling Georgia within 41-28.

Both teams lost players to injuries in a basically clean game.

Georgia got off to a great start when Zamir White went 75 yards on the second play, en route to a 14-0 lead that was erased with 10 minute. And he carried six times the rest of the way.

Eric Stokes’ pick-6 gave Georgia a 21-14 lead, but that lasted less than a minute before Pitts made a great catch for a 25-yard score. The Gators took the lead for good four minutes later, and capped the half with a touchdown less than two minutes after a 50-yard field goal.

Trask finished with 474 yards on 30 completions in 43 attempts, with four TDs and one pick. Bennett finished 5 of 16 for 78 yards, with a TD and interception. Mathis was 4 of 13 for 34 yards and two interceptions.

Florida’s 571 yards were the most against Georgia since 2001, and Trask’s 474 yards were the second-most in school history. He set a single-game mark for the Georgia series, the Bulldogs giving up the most yards since 2000 against Kentucky.

Box score

Breakdowns and missed opportunities

Mathis finally gets some snaps

Cine’s ejection weakens D even more

QB review: Umm …

UGA notebook

UF notebook

Early issues foreshadowed

Rough, rough day for pass defense

Kearis Jackson talks

Kirby Smart talks

Second quarter got UF going

UF O just better than UGA D

Is Georgia, Smart getting passed by?

Joy in Jacksonville for giddy Gators

Pitts takes big hit, leaves, but Florida misses no beat

Georgia Southern 20, Troy 13

Gerald Green ran for 109 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown, and Derrick Canteen sealed the win with a late interception as Georgia Southern notched a 20-13 Sun Belt Conference football win over Troy Saturday afternoon in Paulson Stadium.

Trailing 13-6 in the third quarter, Georgia Southern (5-2, 3-2) scored the final 14 points of the game to break a three-game losing skid against the Trojans. Green cut up the middle for a 69-yard run with 7:37 left in the third, and after the defense posted a 3-and-out, Werts went around the end for a 5-yard TD run late in the stanza.

The Eagles had a chance to add to their lead but missed a 34-yard field goal with 2:40 remaining in the game, and Troy got the ball back on its own 20-yard line. The Trojans (4-3, 2-2_ worked the ball down to the Eagle 16-yard line, but Reynard Ellis tipped a Jacob Free pass attempt and Canteen picked it off to seal the win. (GSU sports information)

Box score

Troy QB Gunnar Watson (Taylor County) was held out, still recovering from an upper-body injury suffered a few weeks ago.

Georgia State 52, Louisiana-Monroe 34

Cornelious Brown IV passed for 241 yards and accounted for four touchdowns, including two scoring passes to Cornelius McCoy, to lead Georgia State to a 52-34 victory over ULM Saturday at Center Parc Stadium.

Georgia State (3-3, 2-3 Sun Belt) tied the program record for points against an FBS opponent as the Panthers reached 52 points for the second time this season and fourth time over the last two years.

The Panthers rushed for 263 yards, including 102 by Destin Coates, who scored two touchdowns. The Sun Belt's leading rusher topped the 100-yard mark for the fourth time in five games this season, and he moved into fifth place on GSU's career rushing list with 1,219 yards. (Georgia State sports information)

Box score

A nice rebound from a romp

ULM’s first half struggles continued

Around/About Central Georgia

Henley in top 30 at Houston

A pair of 69s around a 72 is good enough for a tie for 28th for Russell Henley at the Houston Open.

The Maconite is even after three rounds with a 210, nine back of leader Sam Burns, moving up eight spots from Friday.

Henley had two pars and a bogey on Thursday, and two bogeys with 16 pars on Friday. Saturday, four birdies topped three bogeys.

Around/About Georgia

Tech FB assistant salaries stagnant

Broncos – and Westside’s Jackson – visit Atlanta

Falcons activate Twiggs County’s Dennard