The Central Georgia Sports Report

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FAYETTEVILLE – There’s no place like home.

          For Perry lately, there’s no place like somebody else’s home.

          The Panthers were again comfortable far from the corner of Park Avenue and Parkway Drive, and now they’ll have one more game far from the confines of Herb St. John Stadium.

          At Mercedez-Benz Stadium.

          Perry came up clutch in the fourth quarter on offense and defense to stop Starr’s Mill 28-24 in a GHSA Class AAAA quarterfinal to earn the team’s first trip to a football state championship game.

          The Panthers improved to 12-2 – their first 12-win season in program history - with their third straight road playoff win. Perry’s last three seasons ended with home playoff losses, by seven, 14, and 29 points.

          Perry will play a team from just up I-75, Stockbridge, at 4 p.m. on Dec. 12 in the championship. Stockbridge stunned consensus composite No. 11 and undefeated Benedictine 45-31 to advance to its first state championship game, after reaching the semifinals three times,: 2014, 2016, and 2018

          Until this season, Perry hadn’t been on the road for a playoff game since falling 39-7 to Oconee County in 2019, head coach Kevin Smith’s third season.

          The Region 4 champs were hoping for their first trip to the state championship since 2010, when they lost 24-0 to Chattahoochee.

          The hosts got going first.

          Logan Inagawa dumped a short pass over the middle to Anderson Cardoza, who rambled to the 1, delaying the inevitable, a plunge by Dorsey Benefield for the lead a little over three minutes into the game.

          The host Panthers forced a punt, and passed and ran their way downfield before settling for a field goal, and a 10-0 lead with 4:13 left in the first quarter.

          The visiting Panthers couldn’t move, but stepped up on defense. Finally, the offense got moving, a long pass from Colter Ginn to Dakarai Anderson putting Perry in the red zone.  A few Gordon runs later, Perry scored, pulling to within 10-7 with a full 7:30 left in the half.

          But the teams couldn’t manage any major offense the rest of the half.

          Then came an action-packed third quarter.

          Kory Pettigrew’s diving catch kept a drive alive,

          Gordon powered in from 3 yards out, and Perry was back up, 14-10 less than three minutes into the third quarter. Starr’s Mill didn’t waste much time answering, getting a 49-yard from Inagawa to Skip Smith, open on a slant, to set up a 13-yard TD pass to Cardoza, who carried some defenders with him, at the 8:18 mark of the third quarter.

          Benefield finished off a long drive with a 4-yard score, putting Starr’s Mill up by 10 with 1:26 left in the third. The momentum didn’t last long.

          Ginn stayed hot, pulling Perry closer with a long strike to Anderson to get the Panthers near the end zone. The two connected again, Ginn throwing off-balance to his right, and Anderson powering into the right side of the end zone, the PAT  the kick cutting Starr’s Mill’s lead to 24-21 in the final half-minute of the third quarter with an impressive 80-yard drive that didn’t take much time.

          Ginn came up big again, with a strike to Pettigrew – who bobbled it momentarily  for a 64-yard score to put the Panthers up 28-24 with 8:48 left in the game.

          Starr’s Mill made Perry sweat shortly after that. A pass interference call kept a drive going, and the hosts converted a third down, and then welcomed a roughing-the-passer call after reaching the red zone.

          The hosts got inside the 10 only for the visitor’s defense to stiffen. On fourth down at 10, Perry’s defense bowed up and stopped Starr’s Mill, and then the offense was able to run the clock out.

Ginn had a night, completing 20 of 31 for 373 yards and two scores with no interceptions. Anderson caught eight passes for 166 yards and Pettigrew four for 131, Gordon rushing 24 times for 71 yards and two touchdowns.