Ware County had to overcome itself sometimes as much as visiting Chamblee in Friday night’s second round of the GHSA Class AAAAA playoffs.
The top-ranked Gators (11-0) suffered turnovers and struggled on both sides of the ball for the better part of a half before recovering after intermission to claim a 24-7 victory in Memorial Stadium.
“Sometimes you have to find a way to win and we did that tonight,” Ware County head coach Jason Strickland said. “It wasn’t pretty, but the goal was to be practicing on Monday.”
That practice with school out for the Thanksgiving holiday will begin a week of preparation for Calhoun (9-3). The Region 7 champions, who advanced with a 34-7 win against Kell, eliminated the Gators in last year’s second round 49-42, scoring the winning points in the final minute.
“We can’t make the focus to beat Calhoun,” Strickland said.
The Gators have some issues to rectify. They suffered two interceptions and two fumbles, hurting their usual offensive consistency.
The Bulldogs (8-3), however, had a lot to do with that.
“They flat out got after it,” Strickland said of the visitors. “For a large part of this game they outplayed us, especially up front. They whipped us up front a good part of the deal. They’re a heck of a football team.”
It also took a while defensively to figure out Chamblee’s offensive sets and quarterback Fabian Walker. The Gators trailed 7-3 at halftime before scoring two touchdowns in just more than two minutes midway through the third quarter to take command.
“From the offensive standpoint, we have a lot to clean up,” Strickland said. “We’ll have to play much better on offensive side of football (vs. Calhoun) than we did tonight.”
The Gators had 160 yards rushing and 121 passing, but two interceptions and two fumbles hampered there normal consistency. R.J. Boyd led the ground game with 92 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries.
Quarterback Nikao Smith was only 7-for-21 passing with the interceptions, the first of which led to the Bulldogs only touchdown.
“He was pretty banged up going into the game,” the coach said. “He had a foot issue planting and getting the ball out with the zip he’s had the last couple of weeks. He’ll be fine next week. He’s been the guy for us all year long, especially last half of the season.”
Smith connected with Brandon Washington on a 42-yard pass for a touchdown. Linebacker Trey Hargrove delivered the other score when he blocked a punt deep in Chamblee territory and recovered it in the end zone. William Bates accounted for the other points with a field goal and three conversion kicks.
Walker had the lone Chamblee touchdown on a sneak in the second quarter. The senior accounted for the bulk of Chamblee’s offense, completing 16-of-25 passes for 140 yards.
The Bulldogs, however, managed only 10 yards rushing on 30 attempts, as Walker was sacked six times and also tackled for a loss on a designed run.
Save one possession, the first quarter was an exchange of punts. That exception came on the Gators’ second drive when they drove from their 21 to the Chamblee 30 only to stall when Boyd slipped after taking the handoff on a fourth-and-3 play and managed only a yard.
The Bulldogs broke the stalemate by converting Ware County’s first turnover into their only points midway through the second quarter. Smith fumbled on a pass attempt when he was hit from behind by defensive end Marquavious Wright giving the visitors the ball at the Ware County 17.
Five plays later, Walker scored from a yard. Daniel Chavez added the conversion kick for a 7-0 lead with 7:22 left in the half.
The Gators escaped going down further a few minutes later after Smith was intercepted by Jeffrey Thornton on the third play following the kickoff giving Chamblee a first down at the Ware County 38.
After a holding penalty moved the Bulldogs back to the 48, they could move only to the Ware County 27 where the drive stalled. Chavez came on for a 43-yard field goal attempt on fourth-and-12, but his kick was just short of the crossbar.
Taking over at the 20 with just more than two minutes left, the Gators moved for a first down at the Chamblee 15. Smith connected on passes of 27 yards to Kasai Jones and 25 yards to Jarvis Hayes on consecutive plays to key the quick march.
After a timeout, however, Smith misfired on three straight pass attempts, the last one under heavy pressure, to bring on Bates. The sophomore’s 32-yard field goal was good to cut the deficit to 7-3 with 53 seconds left before intermission.
“They were dropping eight on so many of our throws,” Strickland said.
The Gators took control with two touchdowns in a span of 2:04 in the third quarter.
A 23-yard punt return by Alex Justice, who returned a punt 91 yards for a score last week against Jones County, got the Gators out of a hole for a first down at their 38. Boyd handled things from there, covering the distance with runs of 30, seven and eight yards before scoring on a 17-yarder with 4:43 left in the quarter.
The momentum totally shifted four plays later when Trey Hargrove blocked Chamblee’s punt from the 16 into the end zone where he recovered the ball with 2:39 remaining in the quarter.
“The defense was able to get off the field there early in the second half, and Alex got that good punt return to kind of set things up,” Strickland said. “R.J. got angry on that drive and started kind of feeling it. That got the crowd back in game, and then we had the blocked punt.”
Ware County capped the win with its final touchdown in the first two minutes of the fourth period off a nifty individual effort from Smith.
The junior picked up a low snap and was immediately under pressure, eluded the rush to the outside to find Washington open in the Chamblee secondary. The receiver pulled in the pass, and with the help of a block from fellow receiver D.J. Loriston on the final defender, raced to the end zone to complete the 42-yard play.
“What could have been a disastrous play there, (Smith) relaxed, picked the ball up, gets out of pocket and makes a play there,” Strickland said. “He’s matured so well. Brandon’s catch let us catch our breath a little.”
