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PAGE 2B
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2016
High School Football: Winder-Barrow
Big plays fuel Gainesville win over Bulldoggs
By Scott Thompson
Sports Editor
GAINESVILLE — Prior to Friday's
GHSA Region 8-AAAAAA showdown
with Gainesville, Winder-Barrow head
coach Heath Webb said the Bulldoggs'
chances of a win would hinge on their
ability to eliminate big plays.
In the end, it was the big plays that hurt
them.
Gainesville quarterback DJ Irons threw
a pair of first-quarter touchdown passes
and the Red Elephants never looked back,
beating the Bulldoggs 30-16 at Bobby
Gruhn Field.
The win pushed Gainesville (4-4, 2-1
region) ahead of Winder-Barrow (4-4, 1-2)
in the 8-AAAAAA standings.
Irons, a 6-foot-4. fleet-footed senior,
finished 9-for-18 with 155 yards in the air
and three touchdowns overall. And though
he was sacked a handful of times by the
Bulldoggs, he was elusive enough to finish
with 44 yards on the ground and continue
a couple of key drives for the Red Ele
phants with his scrambling ability.
“He’s able to create plays when it seems
like nothing is there,” Webb said of Irons.
“Probably the most difficult play in foot
ball to defend is the quarterback scramble
when a guy can scramble like he does. At
times, we did a pretty good job of corral
ling him. But when we didn’t, he made us
pay for it.”
Winder-Barrow moved the ball success
fully most of the night, finishing with 238
yards — including 128 on the ground from
sophomore running back Jamar Mack —
but had trouble finding the end zone,
settling for three field goals from Jesse
Zamora.
“We’ve got to find a way to beat a good
secondary, and they’re obviously very
good.” Webb said. “We struggled finding
ways to beat them in the passing game
and that's what led to field goals instead
of touchdowns.”
Zamora’s first field goal came from 36
yards out on the Bulldoggs' opening drive,
which started with a 36-yard scamper by
Mack on the first play from scrimmage
that got the ball into Gainesville territory.
It was the only lead the Bulldoggs
would have all night and it lasted just over
two minutes.
KD Smith, who led Gainesville with
111 yards rushing, broke off a 33-yard run
on the Elephants’ first offensive play, and
a few plays later Irons converted a fourth
down-and-2 play to get to keep the drive
alive.
On the next play. Irons found a wide-
open Rodarious Timmons down the left
sideline to put Gainesville on top for good.
On the Elephants' next possession. Irons
escaped a pair of Winder-Barrow defend
ers and heaved a 45-yard strike over the
middle of the field to Jim Barnett to extend
the lead to 14-3.
The Bulldoggs cut the lead to 8 on
two occasions — a 40-yard field goal by
Zamora prior to halftime and a 4-yard
touchdown run by Nathan Millwood early
in the fourth quarter.
But each time, the Elephants had an
answer. Irons tossed his third touchdown
pass early in the third — a 10-yarder to
Tyriq Kabir — and Gainesville kicker
Brandon Reyna tacked on three field goals
to keep the Bulldoggs at a distance.
W 3 3 3 7—16
G 14 0 10 6—30
W—Jesse Zamora 36 field goal
G—DJ Irons 20 pass to Rodarious Tim
mons (Brandon Reyna kick)
G—Irons 45 pass to Jim Barnett (Reyna
kick)
W—Zamora 40 field goal
G—Irons 10 pass to Tyriq Kabir (Reyna
kick)
W—Zamora 20 field goal
G—Reyna 27 field goal
W—Nathan Millwood 4 run (Zamora
kick)
G—Reyna 20 field goal
G—Reyna 28 field goal
TRYING TO MAKE A PLAY
Winder-Barrow linebacker Kevin Mooney tries to bring down Gainesville
quarterback DJ Irons during Friday’s game. The Red Elephants won 30-16
behind three passing touchdowns from Irons. Photo by Scott Thompson
BIG NIGHT
Winder-Barrow kicker Jesse Zamora kicked three field goals in the Bulldoggs’
30-16 loss Friday at Gainesville. Photo by Scott Thompson
BULLDOGGS FALL TO RED ELEPHANTS
Left: The Winder-Barrow Bulldoggs take the field for Friday’s GHSA Region 8-AAAAAA matchup at Gainesville. The Bulldoggs lost the game 30-16 to drop to
4-4 overall and 1-2 in region play. Right: Winder-Barrow running back Jamar Mack looks for running room against the Red Elephant defense. Mack finished
with over 100 yards rushing in the loss. See more photos on pages 6-7B. Photos by Scott Thompson
High School Football: BCA
High School Football: Apalachee
LCA uses second-half
rally to nip Knights
By Scott Thompson
Sports Editor
With a chance to force
a three-way tie for sec
ond place in GISA Region
1-AAA and possibly host
a playoff game, Bethle
hem Christian Academy's
football team came up
just short Friday night at
Loganville Christian.
The Knights couldn’t
hold a 7-point fourth-quar
ter lead and fell 20-14 to
the Lions to finish fourth
in the region.
They now head down to
St. Simons Island on Fri
day to take on Region 2
champion Frederica Acad
emy at 7:30 p.m.
Perhaps the key play in
the game came after BCA
quarterback Michael Tus-
cano put the Knights ahead
14-7 on a 6-yard touch
down run with less than a
minute to play in the third
quarter.
BCA coach Lance Fend-
ley decided to try an onside
kick, and though the
Knights (4-6, 2-3 region)
thought they recovered it,
the officials awarded pos
session to the Lions (4-3.
4-1).
The Lions wasted no
time from there, marching
downfield and tying the
game on a 15-yard run by
Matt Hardeman.
On the ensuing posses
sion. the Knights were
driving but fumbled the
ball on their 30-yard line.
That led to the
game-winning score — a
1-yard plunge by Dylan
Alvarez with four minutes
to play.
After a missed extra
point, the Knights got
the ball back and tried to
mount a drive but were
forced to punt with 1:50
left. BCA got one more
stop and the ball back with
a minute to go. but a last-
chance effort was snuffed
out by the Lion defense.
Fendley said he could
feel his team's sense of
urgency shift drastically in
the second half from the
first half which he charac
terized as a lack of energy.
The Knights were ane
mic on offense in the
opening 24 minutes and
missed on their first five
third-down attempts while
being shut out by the LCA
defense.
“There's not a lot of
momentum that can be
built offensively when
you're playing like that.
We just couldn't get any
thing going,” Fendley said.
“But our defense only
gave up two first downs
the entire first half, so we
played really great on that
end.”
The only big play sur
rendered in the opening
half by BCA’s defense was
a 69-yard touchdown run
by Hardeman that made it
7-0 at the break.
The Knights knotted
the score in the third on
a 26-yard touchdown lob
from Tuscano to Austin
Bennett.
“It was a tough loss
because the kids fought
hard,” Fendley said. “We
just never really got that
last shot.”
Lanier topples Wildcats 45-9
By Scott Thompson
Sports Editor
The Apalachee High
School football team
already had a daunting
task ahead of it Friday
at Lanier trying to take
down the GHSA Region
8-AAAAAA co-leader
in the Longhorns' back
yard.
Lanier erased any
possibility of an upset
early, scoring 38 first-
half points on the way to
a 45-9 rout of the Wild
cats.
Longhorn quarterback
Noah Fritz finished 166
rushing yards and four
touchdowns on 22 car
ries, according to the
Gwinnett Daily Post, and
added another 91 yards
and a score through the
air.
“We knew it was going
to be a tough matchup
for us,” Apalachee coach
Steve Sims said Sunday.
“They are a very physi
cally gifted team and we
wanted to be able to keep
it close. To their credit,
they played really well.
They’ve had some inju
ries, but they got every
body back and really hit
their stride against us.
After the first couple of
drives in the game, we
weren’t able to fight
and respond in the first
half like I thought we
could.”
With Lanier (6-2, 3-0
region) already up 3-0,
Fritz scored his first of
five touchdowns on a
27-yard run to push the
lead to 10-0. He added
a pair of 4-yard runs in
the second quarter, and
Tywon Reaves chipped
in with a 5-yard scamper
to make it 31-0.
Apalachee (2-5-1, 0-3)
notched its first score
with a minute to play in
the opening half when
quarterback Ryan Miller
ran it in from 25 yards
out.
But the Longhorns
answered right back with
a 27-yard touchdown
See Wildcats on Page 3B
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Players of the Week
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AHS
Brad Toxen
BCA
Jamar Mack wr, x ui\wk
Photo Courtesy of
I'/tfriO Nelson Sanders
770-867-2188