Central Georgia Sports ReportComment

HS roundup: West Laurens guts it out, penalties help doom Northeast

Central Georgia Sports ReportComment
HS roundup: West Laurens guts it out, penalties help doom Northeast

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

 

Class AAA
West Laurens 21, Jenkins 16

          A 7-7 game after a half started  going West Laurens’ way early in the third quarter in extremely familiar fashion.

          Ty Cummings went long. Hard and fast.

          The senior took the snap on the first play of the third quarter and went left, into a pile of Jenkins defenders. He then extracted himself from them and took off for an 80-yard run and a lead the Raiders wouldn’t extinguish, to keep alive their historic perfect season.

          Jenkins got into the red zone, but West Laurens’ defense stepped up after a first and goal at the 9 and forced a field with 5:45 left in the third for a 14-10 lead.

          Juvon Hill ran a perfect route to get open and take in Cason Pollack’s 36-yard strike for an insurance touchdown to cap an impressive clock-eating drive to go up 21-16 with 1:33 left in the third.

          Jenkins punted 106 seconds into the fourth quarter, and the Raiders finally gave it back with just less than six minutes left on a punt. The visitors were stopped on fourth and 12 with 3:27 left near midfield, but West Laurens punted it back with 1:29 left, leaving the Warriors on their on 35.

          A penalty nullified a long gain with just less than a minute left, but Jenkins punched it in with a short pass as only nine seconds remained.

          Cummings had more than 200 yards before leaving in the second half with an ankle injury. He said in a post game interview he felt fine.

Next:  West Laurens at Jefferson (47-28 over Cairo)

 

Class A/Division I
Toombs County 24, Northeast 6 (Click here for the full story)

          A week ago, Northeast survives a slew of 15-yard emotion and discipline penalties while getting past Swainsboro, but head coach Jerem Wiggings knew the Raiders wouldn’t survive another double-digit flagfest.

          They didn’t.

          This time, the discipline penalties came in the form of more than a dozen five-yard punishments that constantly interrupted Northeast’s offensive flow and the Raiders were held to single digits for the first time since falling 17-7 at Dublin last season. It was Northeast’s lowest playoff scoring effort since losing 49-0 to Appling County in the first round of the 2023 playoffs.

          They were unable to avenge the 38-18 loss in last year’s A/I state title game, Toombs County again the sharper and more sound team in the quarterfinal meeting.

          Northeast’s defense, led by Isaiah Stubbs and Tailen Sampson, held Toombs County to two touchdowns below its average, and to its second-lowest total of the season, matching last week’s mark in a 24-19 win over Thomasville.

          Toombs County followed a missed field goal with a made one for a 3-0 lead with a few minutes left in the second quarter after a long feeling-out period for both teams.

          An early third-quarter Northeast drive stalled with a stop on fourth down, and Toombs County answered with a 13-yard touchdown run for a 10-0 lead alte in the third quarter.

          Tavon Shivers tipped a Toombs County pass and hauled it in for an interception inside the 25 early in the fourth quarter. The Raiders opened up the playbook, with quarterback Bam Glover’s backward pass to Jacori Sherman, who fireed a strike to an open Kortnei Williams for an 18-yard touchdown, only for the PAT kick to be sabotaged by a pair of false starts and fall short.

          The defending state champs answered the threat with a short rushing touchdowns with just inside six minutes left, and sealed it with another score near the three-minute mark.

          Toombs County’s Justin Powell ran for 183 yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries, accounting for 71.5 percent of the Bulldogs’ yards, hitting 30 rushing touchdowns for the year and passing the 1,600 yard mark. Quarterback Joseph Owens was held to 52 yards passing – his third-lowest total amid a 2,000-yard seasons - on six completions.

          Northeast finished 10-2, and is the only Bibb County public school team with consecutive 10-win seasons since Westside did it in 2008 – the final season for Robert Davis – and 2009 – the first season under Spoon Risper.

          The 22-6 mark of the last two seasons is the best among Bibb County public teams since those Seminoles went 23-3 in 08-09 with Davis and Risper and a pair of quarterfinal losses.

 

Quarterfinal scores

Class 6A
Carrollton 34, Grayson 14
Buford 30, Douglas County 15
North Gwinnett 25, West Forsyth 15
Valdosta 45, Walton 42

Class 5A
Thomas County Central 49, Woodward Academy 19
Rome 31, Jackson County 17
Roswell 42, Sequoyah 35

Class 4A
Marist 23, North Oconee 20
Creekside 35, Lithonia 7
Benedictine 80, Central-Carrollton 32
Kell 48, Cartersville 21

Class 3A
West Laurens 21, Jenkins 16
Jefferson 47, Cairo 28
LaGrange 24, Stephenson 7
Sandy Creek 34, Douglass 0

Class 2A
Sumter County 39, Carver-Atlanta 20
Burke County 41, Rockmart 40
Carver-Columbus 38, Thomson 10
Hapeville Charter 34, Morgan County 22

Class A-Division I
Pepperell 34, Rabun County 0
Heard County 39, Fitzgerald 38
Toombs County 24, Northeast-Macon 6
Worth County 17, Gordon Lee 7

Class A-Division II
Clinch County 27, Wheeler County 22
Early County 27, Screven County 20
Bowdon 49, Jenkins County 22
Lincoln County 52, Brooks County 16