FOLKSTON — Damon Moody’s fourth down touchdown and subsequent two-point conversion in overtime helped Pierce County Middle School escape with a hard-fought 16-14 win here over Bethune Middle School.
The victory sealed a berth in the upcoming Southeast Georgia Middle School Athletic Conference playoffs for the defending champions, which begin Wednesday, October 2.
The No. 1 seeds for the North and South divisions will host the No. 2 seeds from the opposite side in semifinal pairings.
PCMS (4-0) host Waycross Middle School today (Wednesday, September 25) in the regular season finale. The Bears have won a school record 12 consecutive games and 23 of their last 27 games dating back to the 2021 season.
Pierce Middle, which ran just 22 offensive plays against the Braves, opened the overtime period with the ball in an 8-all tie. The Bears overcame a six-yard loss on the first play of the extra session on the legs of Moody (four carries, 25 yards, two touchdowns), who bulled his way seven yards for the touchdown on fourth-and-two for PCMS’s first lead of the game. His two-point conversion pushed the margin to 16-8.
Bethune Middle needed six plays to score cutting the margin to 16-14 on a five-yard run. The Bears’ defense rose up to make the stop short of the goal line on the two-point conversion.
The Bears, who had the ball for only seven plays in the opening two quarters, trailed 8-0 at after a very quick first half played in 23 minutes of real time.
PCMS was still down a touchdown midway through the final period and 79 yards away from the end zone. Quarterback Colton McCook (2-of-3, 68 yards) hit Ja’shun Faison (two catches, 68 yards) for eight yards followed by a 60-yard catch-and-run to the Braves’ 11.
Following a seven-yard run by Jayme Perez (11 carries, 17 yards), Moody plowed the final four yards for his first score closing the deficit to 8-6 with 1:41 remaining. Moody tacked on the twopoint conversion tying the game at 8-all.
Bethune turned the ball over on downs with 14 seconds left in regulation.
Both defenses were dominate. Pierce Middle managed a season-low 106 yards of total offense on 22 plays (4.8 average). The Bears’ defense surrendered 151 yards to the ballhogging Bethune offense, which snapped the ball 42 times (3.6 average).
