FOLKSTON – Charlton County built a 28-0 first quarter lead and never looked back in beating Brantley County 61-13 here Friday night in the opener for both teams.
The 61 points by the Indians was their most in the 47-game history against Brantley County eclipsing the 55 scored in 2005. It was the first time Charlton County had surpassed the 60point plateau since scoring 64 against Lanier County in 2013 — a span of 95 games.
The game also pitted two first-year coaches at the respective programs (David Shores at Brantley County and Demario Jones for the Indians) matching up in the series for the first time since 1970 when Hilton Culbreath led the first-year varsity Herons against Warren Purvis and Charlton County.
The Indians started quickly forcing Brantley County to a three-and-out on its opening series of the season. Charlton County went 38 yards in three plays igniting the four-touchdown outburst in the first 10:36 of the game.
The Indians scored touchdowns at the end of nine of their 11 possession for the night piling up 397 yards of offense (290 rushing, 107 passing). Meanwhile, Brantley County managed 169 yards (50 yards rushing, 119 passing).
Omari Wilson (seven carries, 52 yards) capped the drive plunging two yards for the first of his three touchdowns in the opening stanza just 1:42 into the game. Ayden Crews connected on the first of his four PATs in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead.
The Herons were out of sync in Shores debut. They suffered four interceptions and lost two of their four fumbles.
“We didn’t come close to slowing them (Indians) down,” said Shores afterwards. “We made a lot of mental mistakes that hurt us. All week we (coaches) were talking to the players about effort. That came from our performance in the scrimmage against Frederica Academy.
“We talked to the players about focusing on playing hard from whistle to whistle. We did that, but we mentally lost focus of executing on both sides of the ball.”
It took Charlton County nearly six minutes to punch in its second score. It was the first of three in less than three minutes at the end of the first quarter to blow the game open.
Wilson scored with 4:17 remaining in the opening period on a 23-yard pass from Crews for a 14-0 advantage.
The Indians scored their third touchdown 24 seconds later (3:53) on a A.J. Glover 25-yard pass to Trevan Cobb upping the margin to 21-0. Wilson’s 11-yard run with 1:24 to play in the period stretched the advantage to 28-0.
Brantley County’s first touchdown of the season came just 6:46 before intermission capping a six-play, 61-yard drive aided by a pass interference call against the Indians.
Kendall Wright burst through an opening in the middle of the Charlton County defense for a 22-yard jaunt. Rylen Smith’s PAT sliced the margin to 28-7.
The Indians responded at the 2:55 mark with a 24-yard touchdown run by Maurice Sims and a two-point conversion by Crews to build a 36-7 lead.
BCHS punched its last score of the night with 30 seconds left in the half. Quarterback Kaden Hendrix connected with Anthony Walker for a 33-yard score on third-and-24. The PAT failed leaving the Herons trailing 36-13 at intermission.
Charlton County scored three times in the third period missing each conversion kick. Sims bolted 52 yards with 9:38 on the clock, followed by a 21-yard scoring aerial from Glover to Tray Jones (3:21) and a 33-yard run by Brandon Woolard (1:23) to take a 54-13 lead into the “mercy rule” fourth quarter.
Sims capped the scoring with a three-yard run with 8:58 remaining. Austin Paulk followed with the PAT.
