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18 NORTHSIDE 1 From page 13 “On the defensive line we lost Marcus Hill and Jonathan Ridley, but coach (Kevin) Smith will have those guys ready to go. “Hopefully it’s (a defense) that won't give up the big play. That’s what we’re focused How they fared Houston County Won 26-14 Warner Robins Won 28-7 North Clayton Won 28-21 Jones County Won 45-0 Dutchtown Won 54-0 Stockbridge Won 43-6 Baldwin County Won 28-6 Upson-Lee Won 41-7 Westside Won 27-7 Mt. ZionMBBB Won 47-6 Lee Co. Won 41-0 Brunswick Won 38-13 Habersham Central Won 34-0 st. Pius X Won 20-17 Marist H Won 30-6 HORNETS 1 From page 17 “Will Jenkins (junior) is kind of amazing in that he weights about 140 pounds but benches about 320,” said Jones. “He looks good out there. Zach Crowe looks good out there. Our defensive tackle people are Ste- YEAR 1 From page 16 not have won much in this season, but the Bears sure weren’t fooled into think ing it would be an easy night. Not trail ing by two with less than two minutes left But Eric O’Neal’s 17-yard touch down run was the game-winner for playoff-bound Houston 14-9 Warner Robins didn’t look playoff bound losing at home to Colquitt Coun ty 24-14 Westfield knew for sure there would be no playoffs as Southland, bound for the state finals, won at the Hornets’ Nest 13-0. Perry High was looking for a chance at a 4-AAA playoff game at home, and needed to beat Northeast-Macon to get it. Casey Hayward connected with Akeen Felder twice for touchdowns in the early going, and the Panthers cruised 38-20. Wnk 11 Nov. 10-11 Northside did to Mt. Zion-Jonesboro much what it had done to south sub region teams in the regular season. The Eagles won its play-in game against the north sub-region foe 47-6. Perry also had a play-in round with a on, that everybody takes care of their re sponsibility. We’re throwing a lot of stuff at them so far. I think the strength will be the defensive front (with end Anthony Taylor leading the way). We have a lot of guys who can play there. Hopefully we have enough to keep the pressure and intensity on to be a get-afterit kind of defense.” Sophomore Devon Pike won the place kicking job as a freshman last year and is back after a strong finish to last season. Nix said they are trying to find a new punter and long snapper. Northside starts the year with two big rivalry games, Houston and Warner Rob ins High, and then takes on the team the Eagles perhaps struggled with the most in the regular year, North Clayton. He said it’s important for Northside to be prepared in these games, and that’s most important with Houston County and its new head coach in George Collins. In Region 4-AAAA and the south sub-re gion, Nix said everyone should be improved, even Baldwin, which lost its quarterback and running back. “A lot of attention has gone to (Westside),” said Nix. “Upson-Lee I know will be better. They carried Griffin to the wire, were ahead late in the game in the playoffs. Griffin beat them 36*32. Stockbridge has three or four major college prospects. It’s a very competi tive region. “The only thing that’s guaranteed is ev erybody’s going to come after us. We have a bigger target on our back.” ven Peake, Jay Hadden, Zach Horton and Dylan Carson. Matt Mcßride, who weighs about 255 pounds ... if we have a prospect, I think it’s him (at defensive end). He runs about a 5-1 40, which is moving for a big guy. At the other defensive end, Jordan Payne and Trent Usher are vying for that job.” John Peake, Young, Crook and Revis will also be looked at to play the secondary po- familiar face in Spalding High. The Pan ther defense kept the Jaguars from the red zone (20-yard-line in) let alone the end zone. The offense was provided by a Casey Hayward 52-yard touchdown run and 45-yard pass to Akeen Felder in a 27-0 shutout. On Friday, Warner Robins needed a win to get into the state playoffs from 1-AAAAA. The Demons helped keep the defending AAAAA champions from Lowndes out of the ‘big dance’ as Lar on Scott had a 92-yard kickoff return for a score in a 16-6 win. It was the help from Warner Robins that ensured Houston County of the No. 4 seed from the region. So on Saturday, Coffee County was in the must-win situ ation facing the Bears at McConnell- Talbert. Trojan Melvin Loving scored a three-yard touchdown to cap a 92-yard drive in the fourth quarter, and Coffee got that win 28-21. Week 12 Nev. 17-18 Eric O'Neal helped Houston County shove the football right down Newnan High's throat with five touchdowns and 180 yards on the ground. The Bears had 433 rushing yards, and defensively two fumble recoveries of pass recep tions inside the 20 helped open the AAAAA playoffs with a 35-21 upset. No. Name Grade 3 Nick Bass 12 4 K.J. Morton 11 4 Jordan Couillard 10 5 Tijuan Green 12 6 Leslie Jordan 12 7 Brandon Brown 10 8 Tracey Lawrence 12 9 Ben Hicks 12 10 Quin Green 10 11 Marques Ivory 12 12 Brison Williams 10 13 Darius McGee 12 14 Kevyn Cooper 12 15 Eddie Aaron 11 16 Pat Williams 10 17 DougMeddings 12 18 Joe Scott 11 19 Brandon Jordan 12 20 Adrian Tyler 12 21 Chris Hudson 12 22 Jerome Mitchell 12 23 Jerold Ingram 12 24 Rashad Young 11 25 Xavier Hawkins 11 26 DathanTharpe 12 27 Ken Gray 11 28 Rennis Perry 10 29 Joe Brown 10 30 Alan Davis 11 31 Shawn Rich 11 32 Darius Ivey 11 33 Randal Mcßride 11 34 Eric Fields 11 sitions. Again, only four of the seven South Region teams in Class AAA will make the state playoffs. Jones said FPD and Pinewood should return several starters while South land, which played Tattnall for the state title, lost several seniors. Stratford had a coaching change after a season of struggle. “I think you can expect (Westfield) to play with a lot of enthusiasm,” said Jones. “The Tijuan Green had a 60-yard touch down run on the second play of the game as Northside beat Lee County to open the AAAA playoffs with a 41-0 win. Perry would go down, however, at the start of the AAA playoffs in a road trip to extreme south Georgia in Cairo. The Panthers lost 17-6. David Clark kicked four field goals, including a school-record 50-yarder, to lead Warner Robins past Mundy's Mill 40-14 in a Saturday AAAAA playoff game at ivicConnell-Talbert. Dewayne Jackson also rushed for 134 yards with a touchdown. WMh 13 Nov. 24 Twenty-one first-quarter points and two interceptions by the defense led Houston County to a second road play off victory in as many weeks. The Bears blanked M L. King 28-0. For Warner Robins, this weekend marked the first of two monumental road upsets in the playoffs. Camden County had a huge home winning streak snapped by the Demons 27-7. Tijuan Green ran for 211 yards and three touchdowns, and Northside mounted a scoring drive of 99 yards to beat Brunswick High at McConnell- Talbert 38-13. The long drive in the third 2007 Eagles 35 Anthony Lockhart 11 36 Dominique Loving 12 36 Travis Boyd 10 37 C.J. Styles 11 38 Jason Griffeth 12 39 Aramis Ferguson 11 40 Wes Garber 10 41 Denzel Davis 11 42 Marquis Carswell 12 43 Anthony Taylor 12 44 Khiry Jones 12 45 Tevin Lester 10 46 Devin Mitchell 10 47 Daniel Cambell 11 48 Rich Askew 11 49 Brian Jones 11 50 Phil Jones 10 51 Derek Golden 12 52 Sheldon Maraj 12 53 Michael Leotis 11 54 Jamario Clark 11 55 Austin Bethea 11 56 lan Cunningham 10 57 GusDelßio 10 58 Jerome Bibbins 12 59 Brian Wilson 11 60 VeshanOats 12 61 Kwame Williams 11 62 WillZunino 12 63 Matt Nesmith 11 64 Marc Jones 10 64 Kiara Jones 12 65 Sam Cherney 10 66 DonWerden 10 quarter began with a Charles McKen zie interception that was overruled as a touchback and spotted on the 1. The drive went 14 plays, with a key third down catch by Jacobi Rodrigues, and ended with a Green touchdown. We«k 14 Dec. 1 Two for the Dome, and one stays home. That one is Houston County High, which would lose at Roswell 42-21 in what would turn out to be the final game for retiring head coach Doug Johnson. Northside's defense paved the path to Atlanta with a shutout win against Habersham Central 34-0. Tijuan Green carried the football 29 times for 185 yards and two touchdowns. Warner Robins was close to the Dome playing in the quarterfinals at na tionally-ranked Norcross High. Jeremy Grant had two touchdowns and Rod erick Rose intercepted a pass as the Demons prevailed 14-3. Week 15 Dec. 8-9 Tijuan Green had another game of three touchdowns, and Mario Arm strong intercepted a tipped pass in the Georgia Dome semifinals for AAAA. It wasn’t until Deonta Jordan fell on an onsides kick, however, that Northside HOUSTON COUNTY FOOTBALL 2007 67 Calvin Johnson 11 68 Zach Bibbins 11 69 Matt Hernandez 11 70 Brandon Stephens 10 71 NateKorytko 10 72 Jordan Dooley 12 73 Chip Pouge 10 74 Tharren Printup 10 75 Shedrick Jones 11 76 Chris Linder 11 77 Robert Frisch 11 78 Tommy Moore' 11 79 Trent Johnson 10 80- Devon Pike 10 81 Troy Culpepper 10 82 Andre Smith 10 83 Quin Lester 10 84 Wade Tillman 12 85 Daniel Ater 11 86 Evan Arthur 11 87 Christian Negron 11 88 Steven Faulkner 10 89 Will Foskey 11 90 Henry Davis 11 90 Darren Loving 11 91 Chris Hendrick 11 92 Anton Williams 11 93 Darion Gibson 11 94 Justin Postalwait 12 95 DeronMclntee 11 96 CHRIS JOHNSON 12 97 Abry Jones 11 98 Greg Clark 10 99 Eddie Thomas 12 biggest thing practicing with them so far is their attitude. I think they want to turn this thing back around to where our program used to be. I don’t want to say ‘used to be’ with just one year where we didn’t have a good year. “We just don’t want another year like last year. Those first four ball games are impor tant for us to get off to a good start.” finally secured the right to host the state championship game as the Ea gles topped St. Pius X 20-17. St. Pius had scored the last points of the game on a touchdown with 1:17 left to play. “Nothing” is what Warner Robins had on offense after a solid opening drive against Peachtree Ridge. But the even tual co-state champions dominated ev ery minute afterwards, and it took just about every minute that remained for the Lions to get past the Demons 13-7. Dewayne Jackson had a Demon touch down halfway through the first quarter, but the team had just two first downs afterwards. Week 16 Dec. 15 Finally. Finally. Finally. Northside High, Conrad Nix and ev eryone else in blue are on the outside looking in the championship window no more. The Eagles left no doubt about the outcome, sending Marist back to Atlanta on the wrong end of a 30-6 fi nal. Green had another 200-yard game and caught a touchdown pass, Devon Pike accounted for the first points with a field goal, and Nick Bass caught a touchdown pass. Eric Fields sparked the defensive play with a pair of quar terback sacks.