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SPORTS
Bill Murphy Sports Editor | 770-718-3415 | sports@gainesvilletimes.com
Unties
gainesvilletimes.com
★Tuesday, November 6, 2018
GEORGIA BULLDOGS
BRYANT W00LST0N I Associated Press
Georgia running back D’Andre Swift (7) rushes
for a touchdown against Kentucky during the
first half of Saturday’s game in Lexington,
Kentucky.
Attention
all focused
on Auburn
Georgia not thinking
ahead to No. 1 Tide
Associated Press
The No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs are firmly
focused on a team from Alabama.
No, not the mighty Crimson Tide.
After locking up a spot in the Southeastern
Conference championship game for the sec
ond year in a row, Georgia briefly celebrated
but quickly turned its attention to Saturday
night’s game against Auburn, the 122nd meet
ing in the Deep South’s oldest rivalry.
“There’s not anybody on our team that’s
going to be worrying about anything but
Auburn,” coach Kirby Smart said Monday.
“That’s the next task at
hand. That’s what we have to
be focused on. Our goal is to
play the next team, whoever
the next team is, and we try
not to have real big highs and
no real big lows. We want
to stay neutral, right in the
middle.”
The Bulldogs will get
another shot at the team
they faced in last year’s
national championship game. Top-ranked Ala
bama, which hasn’t been seriously challenged
this season, locked up the SEC West title with
another dominating win, 29-0 over LSU.
Both Alabama (9-0, 7-0 SEC) and Georgia
(8-1, 6-1) are heavily favored to win their
remaining regular-season games, which
would set them up for de facto playoff game
with the SEC title on the line Dec. 1 at Mer
cedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta — the same
spot where they played their classic title game
almost 10 months ago.
In that one, the Crimson Tide switched
quarterbacks at halftime, overcame a pair
of 13-point deficits and pulled out a stunning
26-23 victory in overtime . After Georgia set
tled for a field goal on its first possession of
the extra period, Tua Tagovailoaio threw a
41-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith on
second-and-26 to win the game.
While the Bulldogs are certainly eager to
get another crack at Alabama, no one wants to
talk about that matchup.
Not yet, anyway.
Clearly, the four play
ers made available to the
media on Monday had been
coached up to talk only about
Auburn (6-3,3-3).
“We clinched the East —
that’s great. Now it’s back to
work,” defensive end Jona
than Ledbetter said. “We’re
back to the drawing board
getting ready for this week. We’re not worried
about anything down the line except Auburn.”
One reporter pressed defensive back J.R.
Reed even more, asking if there was ever a
time he “daydreamed” about facing Alabama.
■ Please see GEORGIA, 3B
Georgia vs. Auburn
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Athens
TV: ESPN
Ledbetter
HIGH SCHOOL LOOTBALL
Adaptable to all positions
AUSTIN STEELE I The Times
Flowery Branch’s Jerzee Allentini (42) goes to tackle Denmark’s Ben Whitlock during Friday’s game in Flowery Branch.
Flowery Branchs Allentini all over the field in region win
BY SARAH WOODALL
swoodall@gainesvilletimes.com
When asked to describe
Jerzee Allentini, Flowery
Branch football coach Ben
Hall didn’t identify size as the
most imposing feature of the
Falcons starting linebacker.
It is his intelligence — a
keen eye for the game — that
trumps everything else.
It’s what helped the 5-foot-
9,170-pound Allentini land a
spot on the varsity squad as a
freshman, and it gave him a
small edge as he worked his
way into the starting lineup
earlier this season.
“You know, you’ll have
great students in the class
room, but football doesn’t
make a lot of sense to them
at times,” Hall said. “Jerzee
is one who is a true student of
the game. He works to under
stand what we’re asking him
to do.
“He does it to the best of
his ability,” the second-year
coach added. “He is truly the
epitome of an overachiever.”
And when a number of
key starters fell victim to
an injury-laced stretch of
games, Allentini was one of
a few names called to action.
He picked up more respon
sibilities at fullback halfway
through the season, and last
week he was asked to make
the sudden switch to
middle linebacker in
place of an injured
Connor Mayfield
(ankle). To little sur
prise to Hall, Allentini
adapted.
Despite being in
the unfamiliar posi
tion, Hall said Allen
tini consistently finds
himself at the right
place, at the right time. That
was very much the case last
Friday night against Den
mark, in a Region 7-4A con
test that carried big playoff
seeding implications.
With both teams vying for
a No. 3 playoff seed, Allentini
proved a vital piece to both
sides of the ball for Flow
ery Branch (8-2, 4-2 Region
7-4A) in the 28-19 victory. He
racked up four solo tackles
while assisting four more, and
was one of two Falcon defend
ers to pick off Denmark
quarterback Ben Whitlock.
At fullback, Allentini added
some big runs between the
tackles for the Falcons, twice
moving the chains on
a pivotal fourth-quar
ter drive to help seal
the game.
“Anytime you
have a young kid
thrust into a position
change midseason,
that can be tough, but
(Jerzee) did an out
standing job for us,”
Hall said. “On top
of that, he executed what we
asked him to do offensively ..
and he graded well. He’s just
a heady player.”
Allentini credited his
teammate Mayfield for last
week’s success — provid
ing some advice at practice
while stressing the impor
tance of staying hydrated. On
his fourth-quarter intercep-
Playoff schedule
Friday’s games
Class 6A
■ Gainesville at Creekside
Class 5A
■ Buford vs. Miller Grove
Class 4A
■ Flowery Branch at
Ridgeland
Class 3A
■ North Hall at Lakeview-
Fort Oglethorpe
Class A private schools
■ Riverside Military at
George Walton Academy
tion, Allentini said he sim
ply followed his assignment
as he hauled in a ball that
was tipped near the line of
scrimmage.
“We had a blitz called, so
one of our safeties, Chandler
(Dial-Watson), he blitzed and
the quarterback threw it,
tipped it right up [and I came
up with it]...Nothing special,”
he said.
Allentini also carried eight
■ Please see PLAYER, 3B
NLL
Resurgent Falcons back in the race
Three wins put Atlanta back at .500 on season
Associated Press
Coach Dan Quinn says losing
six starters to injured reserve
never forced him to lose faith
in the Atlanta Falcons, even
before three straight wins
revived the team’s playoff
hopes.
The Falcons (4-4) have
recovered from a 1-4 start
despite losing both starting
safeties, both first-team offen
sive guards, running back
Devonta Freeman and line
backer Deion Jones.
Sunday’s 38-14 win at NFC
East-leading Washington
showed the Falcons, who play
at Cleveland this week, are
back as a playoff contender.
Even after running back
Devonta Freeman and right
guard Brandon Fusco were the
most recent starters to land on
IR, Quinn continued to say the
Falcons were a team on the rise
who had not peaked.
“All along I’ve had real belief
in what this T8 team can be,”
Quinn said Monday. “Although
it started under some difficult
circumstances, I like the way
they’ve supported each other.
I like the toughness they’ve
shown and I feel like
we’re starting to play
like we’re capable of
playing.”
The Falcons iced the
win over the Redskins
by holding the ball for
10 minutes in the fourth
quarter, when Wash
ington didn’t score.
Quinn said the “ability
to finish” was a highlight of the
game.
With Ben Garland starting
for Fusco and Wes Schweitzer
continuing in his fill-in starting
role for injured left guard Andy
Levitre, the new-look offen
sive line played one of its best
games.
The Falcons con
verted 10 of 13 third-
down plays and
scored touchdowns
on two of three red-
zone possessions.
Matt Ryan threw for
350 yards with four
touchdowns and one
interception — only
his third of the season and his
first since a Week 2 win over
Carolina.
Ryan
ANGELO VALDEZ I Associated Press
New York City FC’s Ismael Tajouri-Shradi, left, fights for the ball against
Atlanta United FC’s Leonardo Gonzalez during an Eastern Conference
MLS soccer semifinal match on Sunday in New York.
MLS
Atlanta United displays toughness
Five Stripes victorious in challenging
environment in first semifinal match
DOUG ROBERSON
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Leandro Gonzalez Pirez was
pushed down. He got back up.
Greg Garza was kicked. He got
back up.
Josef Martinez threw himself into
a tackle to stop a shot. He got back
up.
It’s not just that Atlanta United
defeated NYCFC 1-0 on Sunday
at Yankee Stadium, a place the
Cityzenz lost just once this season, in
the first leg of the Eastern Confer
ence semifinals. It was that the Five
Stripes did it with a grit that goal
keeper Brad Guzan said he hasn’t
seen from them all season.
“For me, what was even more
impressive than the result was our
performance,” Guzan said. “And
our performance was that in terms
of grittiness, fighting, scraping. It
was ugly at times and I don’t think
we’ve shown, especially in big
moments against good teams we
haven’t shown that all season.”
It may seem an odd thing to say
considering that Atlanta United
finished tied for the second-most
points (69) in league history, but a
look at the team’s performances in
big games and it’s hard to argue.
They typically played with a cool
efficiency, as if they had a heart
that was barely pumping.
A thumping in the season-open
ing game at Houston. A loss to Red
■ Please see SOCCER, 2B
