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SPORTS
Bill Murphy Sports Editor | 770-718-3415 | sports@gainesvilletimes.com
Unties
gainesvilletimes.com
Sunday, November 4, 2018
HIGH SCHOOL CROSS
COUNTRY
For The Times
North Hall cross country’s Devan Crow competes in the
Class 3A state meet Saturday in Carrolton.
Devan Crow
finishes first
at state meet
BY NATHAN BERG
nberg@gainesvilletimes.com
Saturday was a big day
for North Hall cross-coun
try — and particularly for
top Trojan runner Devan
Crow. Crow crossed the
finish line at Carrolton
High School with a time of
16:19.19, good enough for a
first-place individual finish
at the 2018 GHSA Class 4A
State Cross-Country Meet.
Less than 30 seconds
later, teammate Andrew
Jones completed the race,
solidifying a fourth-place
individual finish of his
own. As a team, the North
Hall boys team came in
third in Class 4A. About an
hour later, the girls team
joined them on the podium
with a fourth-place fin
ish — paced by Elissa
Oliver who came in 20th
individually.
“It was very emotional,
me winning first and our
teams, boys taking third
and girls taking fourth,”
Crow said. “I couldn’t have
asked for a better end to
the season.”
The top four finishes
from both teams at the
state meet caps off a sea
son in which the Trojans
have found regular suc
cess, winning county and
region titles as a team lead
ing up to the state meet.
“This was a great season
for North Hall cross-coun
try,” Crow said. “It’s one
that will be looked back on
as special in the years to
come.”
North Hall’s boys and
girls both finished higher
than any other Hall County
teams at the state meet.
■ Please see STATE, 2B
GA. TECH 38, UNO 28
GEORGIA 34, KENTUCKY 17
Beasts of the East
BRYAN W00LST0N I Associated Press
Georgia running back D’Andre Swift (7) runs for a touchdown in a game against Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., Saturday.
Georgia wraps up the SEC East for second
straight year with road win over Kentucky
Oliver leads
Georgia Tech
past Tar Heels
Associated Press
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.
— Tobias Oliver got his
chance and ran with it.
Oliver rushed for 120
yards and two touchdowns
and passed for a score to
help Georgia Tech beat
North Carolina 38-28 on
Saturday.
Oliver broke a 28-28 tie
with a 1-yard touchdown
run with three minutes
remaining for the Yellow
Jackets (5-4, 3-3 Atlantic
Coast Conference), who
won for the fourth time in
five games.
North Carolina (1-7,1-5)
had a chance to answer,
but Anree Saint-Amour
intercepted Nathan
Elliott’s pass with 2:44 left
to set up Georgia Tech’s
game-clinching field goal.
“We did what we had to
do to get out of here win
ning a game,” Georgia
Tech coach Paul Johnson
said.
Georgia Tech, which
entered the game averag
ing a nation-leading 366.5
rushing yards per game,
ran for 461 yards against a
North Carolina defensive
line depleted by injuries
and suspensions. It was the
Yellow Jackets’ fifth 400-
yard rushing performance
of the season, a school
record.
Oliver replaced starting
quarterback TaQuon Mar
shall on Georgia Tech’s
■ Please see TECH, 3B
BY STEVE MEGARGEE
Associated Press
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Georgia
believed it had a point to prove.
Bulldogs running backs D’Andre
Swift and Elijah Holyfield spent
all week hearing about the rushing
prowess of Kentucky’s Benny Snell
Jr. Georgia’s defensive players kept
fielding questions about their inabil
ity to stop the run or rush the passer
consistently.
They responded Saturday with
a performance that convincingly
showed Georgia remains the class
of the Southeastern Conference
Eastern Division. Swift ran for a
career-high 156 yards and two touch
downs as the sixth-ranked Bulldogs
defeated No. 11 Kentucky 34-17 to
clinch the SEC East title.
“I think people had started doubt
ing us,” Swift said. “We just tried to
silence the critics.”
Swift had an 83-yard breakaway in
the third quarter that gave Georgia
(8-1, 6-1, No. 6 College Football Play
off) a 28-3 lead. He also had a nifty
20-yard scoring run in the second
period when the game was close.
Holyfield ran for a career-high
115 yards on 18 carries, scoring on a
4-yarder in the third quarter. Georgia
rushed for a season-high 331 yards to
earn a spot in the SEC championship
game Dec. 1 in Atlanta.
“It’s definitely a point proven,”
Holyfield said. “There was a lot of
talk about them ... and not
enough talk about us.”
Kentucky (7-2, 5-2, No. 9
CFP) has never reached the
SEC championship game,
which has been played
every year since 1992. The
Wildcats entered the week
end with the nation’s top
scoring defense and hadn’t
allowed anyone to exceed 20
points all year, but they couldn’t slow
down Georgia’s tandem of Swift and
Holyfield.
Before Saturday’s game, the only
player to rush for as many as 75
yards against Kentucky was Texas
A&M’s Trayveon Williams, who ran
for 138 yards in a 20-14 overtime
victory over the Wildcats. Swift and
Holyfield were both over the 100-
yard mark by the end of the third
quarter.
“They did a good job,” Kentucky
coach Mark Stoops said. “They
moved us. They made us miss.
There’s a lot of things we could have
done better, but a lot of that has to do
with them.”
Kentucky dominated time of pos
session through the first 1 '/ 2 quar
ters, but still trailed 7-3. That’s when
Swift started to give the Bulldogs
some breathing room.
With Georgia facing second-
and-17, Swift made a move around
a defender at the line of
scrimmage, made another
move between two Wildcats
about five yards downfield
and shed a tackle inside the
5 to complete a remarkable
20-yard touchdown run.
Swift’s touchdown gave
Georgia a 14-3 late in the
second quarter. Georgia
fumbled away a scoring
opportunity late in the first half but
got the ball to open the second half
and extended the lead to 21-3 on
Holyfield’s touchdown.
On Georgia’s next series, Swift
raced through a big hole on the left
side of the line and didn’t appear to
get touched on his 83-yard sprint to
the end zone. Before that play, Ken
tucky hadn’t allowed a run from
scrimmage longer than 34 yards all
season.
That touchdown sealed a hard-
earned division title for Georgia, last
year’s College Football Playoff run
ner-up. After losing 36-16 at LSU two
weeks ago, Georgia beat Florida and
Kentucky for two straight wins over
ranked division foes.
“Give our kids a lot of credit
■ Please see GEORGIA, 3B
Holyfield
NFL
Redskins in search of a passing game against Falcons
BY STEPHEN WHYN0
Associated Press
LANDOVER, Md. — All games
and no practice reps make Alex
Smith a dull quarterback.
Injuries to receivers Jamison
Crowder and Paul Richardson and
running backs Adrian Peterson and
Chris Thompson have kept them
from getting work in with Smith at
practice and stunted the Washing
ton Redskins’ passing game so far
this season. The NFC East-leading
Redskins have run all over
opponents with a banged-
up Peterson, boasted a
much-improved defense
and is only missing the
kind of effective passing
game they’ll see Sunday
when they host Matt Ryan
and the Atlanta Falcons.
“I think the success for Peterson
a lot of NFL teams is if you can
stop the run, and you can run the
ball and control the clock,
you’ve got a chance to
win some games. We’ve
been able to do all three,”
Thompson said. “The
passing game has been up
and down. It’s been slow.
We’ve been without our
full group of receivers for
a little bit of time. ... We
just have to find a way to do a bet
ter job.”
Smith and the Redskins (5-2)
have averaged 212.7 yards in the
air, and only three teams have
fewer passing touchdowns than
their eight. They won’t have
Crowder again this week as he’ll
miss his fourth consecutive game
with an ankle injury.
Atlanta (3-4) has been battered
by injuries to both starting guards
I Falcons
at Redskins
When: Today, 1 p.m.
TV: Fox
and safeties, running back Devonta
Freeman and linebacker Deion
Jones and as a result hasn’t lived
up to preseason expectations. Ryan
has held up his end of the bargain
■ Please see FALCONS, 4B
