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The Sylvania Times
Wednesday, November 2, 2022 - Page 11
Taking advantage of five
turnovers and several other
crucial mistakes by the
visiting Claxton Tigers,
the opportunistic Screven
County High School
gridiron Gamecocks of
Ron Duncan ran off from
the visiting Tigers by a 34-6
margin on Senior Night at
Kelly Memorial Stadium
last Friday evening.
Running their record to 8-0
and 3 -0 in Class A Region 3
Dl, the Roosters will travel
to ninth ranked Metter this
Thursday, November 3 for
a game that will decide the
region championship. Kick
off in Metter will be 7:00.
SCHS got out to an early
7-0 lead in the waning
minutes of the opening
stanza and continued
scoring through the end
of the third quarter. With
the victory the Gamecocks
assured themselves of a
home state playoff game
on November 11. Into
the third quarter Claxton
consistently put itself in a
position to make the game’s
outcome competitive, but
every time they did they
made a mistake that put
them right back into a
deep hole. From Claxton
punter Alvin Vicente
accidentally taking a knee
while fielding a low punt
snap to Tyrone Atkinson Jr.
dropping a pitch that turned
into an SCHS touchdown
by Dre Flowers. The Tigers
made the mistakes and the
Gamecock offense and the
Dirty Bird defense took full
advantage.
After a short drive that
ended at the CHS 30 to open
the game the first score for
the Red and White came
following the punt snap
miscue. Freshman Andre
Michaud (26-182) scored
from 29 yards out with
4:19 remaining in the
opening stanza. Michaud
was on his way to the
first 100 yard rushing
effort of the season for
the Gamecocks. Jeremiah
Stuart was true on the first
of his four successful PATs.
After their gaffe Claxton
appeared to have moved
within a point on a long
scoring toss on what would
have been the last play
of the first quarter. They
were guilty of holding.
As the same drive entered
the second quarter the
Tigers were first and goal
at the six. AJ Beths ended
the threat with a fumble
recovery.
Forced to punt on
their next possession,
the Gamecocks’ Dirty
Bird defense quickly
afforded the team another
scoring chance when
Beths forced a fumble
recovered by TaCorey
Grant near midfield. SCHS
methodically used nine
plays to score again on
a short run by Michaud.
The biggest play on the
drive was a 24-yard pass
from Jake Pollock (5-8
for 75 yards) to Grant (2-
62). The ensuing kickoff
saw Atkinson, who later
gave the Gamecocks the
scoop and score, take the
ball 83 yards for a score to
move the score to 14-6 (the
PAT failed) with just 2:20
left before intermission.
Claxton inexplicitly kicked
the ball out of bounds to
give the Rooster offense
the ball at their own
48. Using brilliant field
generalship by Pollock the
Gamecocks used their two
timeouts to run ten plays in
that final 2:20 to score on
a ten yard Pollock run with
just :12 remaining before
half. The halftime score
became 21-6 and there was
a feeling of security among
the fans.
The Gamecocks quickly
put the game totally out of
reach in the third. Claxton
fumbled on its first play
of the quarter with Dylaun
Adams recovering at
midfield. After a 49 yard
jaunt by Michaud, Pollock
picked up another score.
The try for two failed. New
kick off specialist Adam
Lingerfelt recovered his
own onsides kick but a
short SCHS drive stalled
at the 31. On the first play
following the fourth down
Claxton stop. Flowers
recorded the final points of
the night with his 15 yard
fumble return. Stuart’s
PAT put the final points
on the board with 6:25
still showing on the third
quarter clock.
Over the final 18+
minutes the second best
scoring defense in all of
GHSA football forced a
punt and a pair of fourth
down turnovers before
the second team offense,
for the second week in a
row, ran out the clock. The
defense has not allowed a
score in regulation play
since the third quarter of
the Jenkins County game,
a span of 17 quarters. For a
group that accrued five
fumble recoveries, no
one had big numbers for
the Dirty Birds. Vasquez
Lonon was in on five
tackles (4-1) as were Justin
Smith (2-3) and Lingerfelt
(1-4). In on three were
Beths (2-1), Miyon
Fulcher (2-1), Adams (1-
2), and Michaud (0-3).
Offensively SCHS had its
second consecutive 300+
yard game with 320 total
yards, 245 on the ground,
and a possession time
advantage of 30:07 to
17:53.
Vasquez Lonon (17), the leading tackier for the Dirty Birds last week, completes a sack of Claxton
quarterback Christian Mixon (photo by PJ Richards).
TaCorey Grant (5) and
Andre Michaud (8)
celebrate Michaud, and
the Gamecocks', first
score of the night in their
34-6 win over Claxton
on Senior Night last
Friday. Jamari Dockery
(50) looks on (photo by
PJ Richards)
Gamecock defensive
end Dre Flowers starts
a "scoop and score" on
a fumble by Claxton's
Tyrone Atkinson Jr
(on the ground) and
with an escort by
Miyon Fulcher (21).
Tiger Kenan Brewton
tries vainly to catch
Flowers (photo by PJ
Richards)
AROUND THE HORN
EXACTLY FIVE YEARS AGO
TOMORROW NIGHT ANOTHER REGION
CHAMPIONSHIP WAS AT STAKE
Burton
Kemp
Remember back in 2017 when
the 9-0 (6-0 in 4AA) Screven
County Gamecocks hosted the
9-0 (6-0 in 4AA) Jefferson
County Warriors in what was
the region championship
game?
SCHS was ranked second
in the writers’ poll and
Jefferson County was sixth.
The stands on both sides of
Kelly Memorial Stadium were
packed and the atmosphere
was the greatest since the 2002
state championship game with
Dublin. It was awesome! The
date was November 3. That
game will be exactly five
year five years tomorrow
night when in Metter a similar
contest will take place. There
is a region championship game
in the last game of the season.
You cannot write a script any
better. 1 am thinking that the
fanfare is not nearly what it
was in 2017. 1 don’t think the
stands will be nearly as full.
Do however realize this game
is just as important. The same
thing is at stake.
Talk about a turn around.
This time a year ago we were
2-7 compared to the 8-0 this
week. This time a year ago
we had to win the game over
visiting Claxton just to be
sure of a fourth place finish
and a trip to a place most folks
couldn’t find on a map. If
you forgotten, that place was
Pelham. No so now, we have
a home game next week with
possibly a team from a place
most folks couldn’t find on a
map, especially if it is Temple.
Maybe this should be a next
week thing after he actually
breaks the record but the win
over Claxton improved Ron
Duncan’s 11 season record at
SCHS to 85-38. Simple math
says that is 123 games as
head coach here. That equals
Sandy Hershey’s 123 games
as head coach. There is a little
difference in the record as
Hershey was 68-51-4. Hershey
was here for 12 combined
seasons as well. Tomorrow
night the Gamecocks will be
going for their fifth region
championship in the Duncan
era. For lack of anywhere
else to put it, I have been
following the unbeaten teams
remaining in the GHSA all
classifications. None of them
lost last week. There are still
22.
A team in the area worth
noticing is Jefferson County.
They were a region game for
us from 2006-2019. It seemed
like they were loaded every
year. Whether our coach was
Mark Daniel, Pat Collins,
Greg Manior, or Ron Duncan
it seemed they were loaded.
Remember thinking that? Do
they ever have a down year?
We had some really good
teams to take them on and
some really bad teams to take
them on (we were 4-8 against
them in that span). They never
had bad teams. With an
open date this past week the
Warriors are 1-8 and 0-3 in
Region 2 A D1.
This week they play East
Laurens who is 1-8 and
0-3. They are playing for
fourth place in the five team
region and the right to go to
Ocilla to play Irwin County.
All they have done is go to
five consecutive Class A
state championship games.
Remember our trips to
Quitman? Jeffco has been in
the playoffs every year since
2002.
Can I say this enough?
Everything in our Region
3 and our play-in Region 4
comes down to this week. Of
course there is us (3-0, 8-0) at
Metter (3-0, 6-3) tomorrow
night in Metter and then there
is Bryan County (1-2, 5-4) at
Claxton (1-2, 4-5). Is it the
last game at the Pecan Grove?
Savannah (0-4, 0-10) is done
for the season. In Region 4
there is Lamar County (2-0, 8-
1) hosting Heard County (2-
0, 5-4) and Temple (0-2, 4-5)
hosting Crawford County (0-
2, 2-7).
No other teams there. From
the August 8 GHSFD and
its projected finish for our
region was Metter 7-3 with
100% chance of making the
playoffs. Then there was
SCHS 5-5 with a 98.6%
chance of the playoffs,
Claxton at 6-4 with a 98%
chance of playoffs, Bryan
County at 2-9 with a 68.9%
chance of playoffs, and
Savannah High at 2-8 with a
34% chance of playoffs. We
will see if they got their order right
this week. Hopefully it is not.
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