By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Adam Lord was worried a little bit about how physical Southwest Georgia was, and how his young team would handle that.

          That, and doing so in the GIAA Class AA state championship game Saturday at Georgia Southern.

          It was a waste of worry.

          The line of scrimmage battles were won by the younger and more inexperience team, and Brentwood was the team that dealt the figurative punches from the start en route to a 28-6 romp over Southwest Georgia for the War Eagles’ second state title in four years.

          “The guys were relentless,” said second-year head coach Adam Lord, also the school’s athletics director. “I thought we were a good bit more physical than them, just to be honest. They’re very physical, so don’t take antying away from them.

          “But I thought our kids showed up to play.”

          So enjoyable was what Lord and his staff saw after the 5 p.m. kickoff that they took in the video version after arriving back at school, at which the War Eagles (11-1) were greeted by scores of fans and the flashing lights of fire trucks and law enforcement.

          “We actually sat at the dang school and watched the film again,” Lord said. “How ‘bout that?”

          The War Eagles’ first touchdown made Lord look pretty smart. As practice started, he had a feeling about using the hook-and-lateral play, which was in the playbook but dusty. Until Lord had a thought early in the week, warning his coaches, especially offensive coordinator Tucker Shull, that they’d think this was a weird thought.

          Lord saw that how Southwest Georgia’s secondary played, and wanted to give the hook-and-lateral a try. Shull went with it.

          “It looked terrible on Monday, and it was suspect on Tuesday,” Lord said. “I said to keep grinding By Friday, I was ready to run it.”

Can young upstart Brentwood handle Southwest Georgia’s physicality on the biggest stage? (With predictons)

          Baylor Cobb threw to Abe Williams on a short route, and he flipped it to talented freshman Tristan Robinson, who took in full stride for a 43-yard score, at the 4:34 mark of the first quarter. Granted, Southwest Georgia answered early in the second quarter to tie it at 6, but the War Eagles showed they were ready.

          Robinson finished off Brentwood’s second possession of the game with a multi-effort tackle-breaking run a short run, ending with his helmet popping off. puting the War Eagles up for good with 6:40 left in the half, Cobb powering in the conversion.

          Southwest Georgia ran the kickoff back to Brentwood’s 42 and drove to the 3. The Warriors lost yardage and faced fourth and goal at the 5, and after dueling timeouts, only to throw an incomplete pass in the end zone with 12 seconds left.

          Along the way in the second quarter came a play that Lord said was a somewhat subtle but clear message-sender.

          Southwest Georgia running back Sawyer Franklin was met head-on by linebacker Thomas Moye, a hit so serious it knocked both players backward.

          “It was a train wreck,” Lord said. “Our guy went back two yards and he went back two yards.”

          It had an impact, Lord saying Franklin didn’t play much the rest of the game. And in that postgame video session?  

          “We watched that one play like five times,” Lord said.

          A long Robinson run set up Zach Denton’s 2-yard  touchdown burst less than two minutes into the third quarter.

          The defense then continued to stymie Southwest Georgia.

          It stopped Warriors on downs, and finished a possession of a few long runs with a game-sealing run of nearly 10 yards from Robinson, Brayden Tyson’s kick making it 28-6 at the 11:23 mark of the fourth quarter.

          And nothing changed as the pressure increased: Brentwood gave Southwest Georgia no ground.

          Moye had more than a dozen tackles, including a few for losses, and Denton had a solid night on defense.

          Before Saturday, Southwest Georgia’s second-lowest point total was 22, in the season-opening 22-8 win over Terrell. The 28 points was the second-most scored against the Warriors, by 10, after the 38-0 loss to Brookstone.

          And the young War Eagles lived up to the peaking-at-the-right-time hope, with their best game of the year.

          “I always talk about (that) Fridays, we got to be out our best,” Lord said. “We picked a good night to be at our best, I’ll be honest with you.”

FPD rally falls short in title defense (Click here for a full story)

          The clock-eating offense that offered potential for confusion wasn’t the problem.

          That team’s defense was.

          FPD was able to handle the Bulloch Wing-T and some of its tweaks, but the Vikings couldn’t get the offense going in losing 14-10 Saturday night to the Gators in the GIAA Class 4A state title game at Georgia Southern’s Paulson Stadium.

The 2023 state champs ended the season 11-2 with the end of a nine-game winning streak, with their second-lowest points total. FPD won the opener 10-0 over Eagle’s Landing Christian, and scored a half-dozen on consecutive weeks, in a loss to St. Anne-Pacelli and win over Brookstone.

          Bulloch finished 12-0 with its first state title since 1997. The 14 points tied the season low, matched in a 14-0 win over Frederica. The Vikings were the eighth team held to 10 points or less.

Can FPD repeat and hand Bulloch yet another runner-up finish? (With predictions)

          FPD got the first lead midway through the third quarter on a 1-yard keeper from quarterback Major Simmons. Bulloch answered a little more than three minutes later on Shamar Jenkins’ 8-yard run.

          Dominic Economopoulos drilled a 24-yard field goal 30 seconds into the fourth quarter for the lead, but Jenkins went in from the 9 at the 6:52 mark to go up by four.

          The Vikings moved on a late possession towad a game-winning score, but stalled, and Bulloch came up with a game-clinching interception in thefinal two minutes.

          FPD’s defense came up big against an offense it hadn’t seen all year, the Wing-T. Bulloch did rack up an impressive 263 yards on 40 carries, but struggled to punch it into the end zone or mount many long spirit-killing drives.

          Bulloch’s defense did better, allowing only 37 yards on 26 carries, and Simmons completed only 10 of 23 for 147 yards with three interceptions.

          Still, the Vikings had a chance at the end.