Central Georgia Sports ReportComment

Central Georgia’s HS 🏈 roundup: Northeast, Woodford stun top seed; Dublin cruises; Peach County falls short in fourth quarter; Houston County gets No.1-caliber game from No. 1

Central Georgia Sports ReportComment
Central Georgia’s HS 🏈 roundup: Northeast, Woodford stun top seed; Dublin cruises; Peach County falls short in fourth quarter; Houston County gets No.1-caliber game from No. 1

GHSA

Class A/Division I

No. 5 Northeast 48, No. 1 Fannin County 39
          Northeast knows how to take a road trip.
          Senior running back Nick Woodford ran for more than 350 yards and four touchdowns, and the Raiders’ defense came up strong in the second half to lead Northeast to the road upset of the top seed.
          Northeast (11-2) became the first Bibb County public school to reach the GHSA semifinals since Westside did it in 2003.
          And the Raiders will be at home, thanks to Fitzgerald’s 42-38 win over Worth County, the first semifinal in Bibb County since 1975 when Central hosted Wayne County at old Porter Stadium and won 21-6 en route to the state AAA championship.

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          Northeast trailed 14-0 and 21-8 before a 25-14 halftime deficit, and the Raiders won the second half 33-15, with Woodford pounding and sprinting for touchdowns of 67, 61, and 4 yards, getting more than 200 yards in the second half.
          The Raiders scored on Woodford’s 7-yard run to get within 9 with 40 seconds left in the first half.
          A big kickoff return to open the second half put Northeast in good position, and it responded with Reginald Glover’s 9-yard keeper to pull within 24-21 at the 8:21 mark of the third quarter.
          After forcing a three and out, Northeast took over on its 31. Two plays later, Woodford took off for a 67-yard touchdown, and a 28-24 lead with 6:50 left in the third.
          Fannin County (12-1) awakened, and quarterback Lawson Sullivan took advantage of poor positioning and tackling for a 73-yard scoring run, and a three-point lead just 23 seconds after the Northeast score.
          The Raiders moved, but failed on fourth and 11 at the Rebels’ 27, but the defense answered with another quick stop.
          A typical battle with penalties followed on Northeast’s possession, until Glover dumped a screen pass to Micaiah Howard, who quickly found room down the left side for a 62-yard touchdown on second and 15. Demotae Dunn got the kick off after a bad snap for a 35-31 lead at the 10:37 mark of the fourth quarter.
          The Rebels had the ball for less than a minute before punting. Woodford broke off a 51-yarder on the first play, and Talien Sampson ran twice for the final 10 yards, his 1-yarder and the kick putting the Raiders up 42-31 with 7:59 left.
          The undefeated Rebels took advantage of a misjudged defensive play and a sure interception – it sailed through a Raider’s hands - to score on a 30-yard pass from Sullivan to Brayden Taylor.  The pass failed, and Northeast led 42-37 with 6:16 remaining.
          Woodford was apparently rested, because he got 14 on first down and then went right and right down the field for a  61-yard touchdown and, after a missed PAT, a 48-37 lead.

          Fannin County was aided by a personal foul on the kickoff and started on Northeast’s 40. After bending and facing second down at the 8, linebacker Santana Balkcom bailed out the Raiders with an interception at the goal line, returning it to the 10.
          Northeast ate up some time while hardly moving, but coughed up two points on a very high punt snap that was a safety.
          Too little, too late for the Rebels, who only pulled within nine with 1:27 left. The defense finished it off.

Dublin 35, Thomasville 13
          The computer program was right, for a little while.
          Favored Thomasville led after a quarter, one of the few times all year that Dublin (13-0) has trailed at all and certainly for that long, thanks to a field goal with 7:04 left in the first.
          And as was the case before, the optimism of the lead wasn’t for long.
          Micah O’Neal’s long run set up Willie Batts’ 10-yard run around the left side less than three minutes into the second quarter for the lead. Thomasville (10-3) threatened, but had to settle for another field goal to pull within 7-6.
          Batts peeled off a 68-yard run down the left side to put the Irish up 14-6 midway through the second quarter. Azontae Walker finished off a long drive with a 5-yard run in the final 88 seconds en route to a 21-6 halftime lead.
          The Irish started pulling away five minutes into the third quarter on Trav Bostic’s 18 yard run, followed a quarter later by Xavier Bostic’s 3-yard run.
          Thomasville managed 275 yard in total offense, 148 through the air and 127 on the ground. Dublin racked up 430 yards overall, 392 on the ground, in three fewer plays.
          Batts rolled for 147 yards on 15 carries, with O’Neal going for 105 yards on 11 rushes.
          Dublin is at home against Toombs County in its sixth semifinal since head coach Roger Holmes took over in 2002. The Irish fell 48-0 to visiting Buford in the 2007 AA semifinal.

State quarterfinal scores

Class 6A
Grayson 31, Collins Hill 14
Douglas 20, West Forsyth 14
Carrollton 46, Hillgrove 6
Buford 43, North Gwinnett 7
Class 5A
Coffee 72, Sequoyah 48
Langston Hughes 28, Thomas County Central 12
Lee County 64, Sprayberry 0
Milton 56, Houston County 14
Class 4A
Creekside 26, Eastside 0
Marist 40, Cambridge 14
Blessed Trinity 24, Benedictine 10
North Oconee 28, Cartersville 26
Class 3A
Jefferson 42, Cherokee Bluff 28
LaGrange 49, North Hall 17
Calhoun 38, Peach County 28
Stephenson 36, Southeast Bulloch 0
Class 2A
Rockmart 49, Morgan County 40
Burke County 49, Thomson 42
Appling County 23, Stephens County 9
Carver-Columbus 44, Pierce County 7

Class A/Division I
Northeast 48, Fannin County 39
Fitzgerald 42, Worth County 38
Toombs County 56, Elbert County 17
Dublin 35, Thomasville 13

Class A/Division II
Irwin County 40, Trion 30
Bowdon 31, Clinch County 13
Brooks County 28, Jenkins County 7
Manchester 20, Lincoln County 17

Class 5A
Milton 56, Houston County 14
          The only fourth seed left in any classification knew what it was getting into with this road trip, taking on by most accounts the best team in the state.
          It got what it hoped wouldn’t happen, Milton flexed its muscle early with a long touchdown pass and rolled over the visiting Bears.
          Milton scored 56 points for the second time this season, joining a 56-0 win over Johns Creek a month ago. The Eagles popped Alpharetta 58-0 in August. Houston County was the sixth team to crack double digits against Milton.
           The Eagles (13-0) upped the lead to two touchdowns midway through the first quarter on a 24-yard touchdown run, but the Bears (8-5) responded with a blocked punt by Jayden Brown inside the Milton 30, setting up quarterback Antwann Hill’s 13-yard scramble for a touchdown, Hill plowing over a defender at the goal line with 2:43 left.
          Milton returned the kickoff to the 35, and needed three plays to go the distance, the final 48 coming on a pass from Luke Nickel to Ethan Barbour only 75 seconds later, taking a 21-7 lead after one.
          TJ Lester’s 16-yard run at the 10:37 mark of the second quarter made it 28-7, but the Bears again responded, aided by a roughing the passer flag. Austin Stinson took a handoff, faked a pitchout and looked to throw the ball, but took off for a nice 12-yard run to cut the lead in half again, with 9:29 left in the half.
          The Eagles put it away with two scores less than four minutes apart in the final 5:05 of the half, Nickel with a  short pass to CJ Wiley and then Tristen Payne, for a 42-14 halftime lead, having racked up more than 400 yards in total offense.
          Milton’s defense kept the Bears quiet, stopping the Bears on a late fourth-and goal, and holding Houston County to under 31 points for only the second time this season. The Bears lost 14-0 to Coffee in October.

Class AAA
No. 6 Calhoun 38, No. 3 Peach County 28
          Peach County couldn’t get the lead against Calhoun, a playoff rival that brings back bad memories, the Yellow Jackets winning the fourth quarter 10-0 to advance to the semifinals.
          It was tied at 28 after three quarters, Peach County – which had a second-quarter touchdown called back for a flag - knotting it up on a 37-yard touchdown pass from D.J. Hudson to Justin Willock with 1:14 left in the third quarter.
          Calhoun’s Aiden Harris scored from the 2 to finish off an 80-yard drive for a 35-28 lead with 7:29 left in the fourth. Peach County turned it over, and Calhoun (10-3) sealed it with a 40-yard field goal in the final two minutes.
          The Trojans finished 11-2, matching their last 10-win season, an 11-2 mark and quarterfinal finish in 2019.