GMC too much in first meeting with Titans

Published 3:16 pm Monday, September 16, 2024

For the first time in about two decades, Georgia Military College had a ‘conference’ football game on the schedule.

For the first time ever, the three-year-old Central Georgia Technical College program had a contest as a GCAA member against another member of the league on the gridiron.

The age, the tradition, the savvy, were all in favor of Rob Manchester’s No. 7 ranked Bulldogs Saturday at Davenport Field in a 65-0 shutout of the Titans. The teams are technically listed as independents by the NJCAA, as is another Georgia team playing at this level for the first time in 2024, Andrew College.

The Titans of CGTC, which play their home games on its main campus in Warner Robins, entered Milledgeville with a 2-0 record. GMC was 2-1, but that loss was at home in overtime to defending NJCAA national champion Iowa Western. The Bulldogs return to Davenport this coming Saturday to play No. 13 Lackawanna College, which lost to Snow College of Utah Saturday 43-40 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

For its part, the GMC Bulldogs did everything in every phase of football to establish dominance from the very beginning. First, there was a quarterback sack by the defense from lineman Miyon Conaway from Hazelhurst.

The home team took its first possession on the Titan 36-yard-line, and the drive ended with a touchdown pass of 33 yards from freshman quarterback Jaylon Brown of LaGrange High to Trenton Smith, another freshman from Acworth. It would be the first of their two scoring connections in the first half.

Kicker Eddie Perez, a freshman from Carrollton High, made all the PAT kicks he tried.

As Jakyri Jones of Monroe came out of the secondary to make the key stop on the next Titan drive, the GMC offense remained in good field position as Brown went up top to Smith for a catch on the 6. Bainbridge freshman Keenan Phillips scored on the ground from there at 8:57 of the first quarter.

The next sack by the Bulldog defense was by freshman Demarie Jordan of Spalding High. That set up a ‘tip drill’ interception by Jordan McRae from Telfair County, but he was denied a ‘pick 6’ by a penalty during the return.

One play later from the 36, those 6 were on the board ran in by sophomore Trequan Jones, who would have two touchdowns in the game.

Down 21-0, the CGTC offense managed its initial first down, two on the drive that got the football close to midfield. The Titans went for another first down when faced with fourth down, but could not convert. The defense from the visiting side, though, was able to stop an end around call on third down, bringing out GMC’s punting unit.

Cole Snyder, a freshman, pounded the football all the way to the 4. CGTC quarterback Nathan Miller was able to move his team out of that deep hole as the game moved into the second quarter. He took a pop, though, from freshman lineman Aiden Benton of Lovejoy High.

GMC’s first drive of the new period began on the 29, and Brown threw a fade to Joshua Okeleye. It was a 7-yard touchdown catch for the Norcross freshman at 11:02 until halftime.

The score was 28-0 for several minutes before a lot of action filled out the remaining five. It included a sack for the Titan defense by Bryson Lawston and a Smith catch in the end zone that was ruled out of bounds. Manchester even took points from a field goal off the board when CGTC was flagged on the kick. What he got was seven instead as another Lovejoy player, Trevon Kinchen, scored on a 5-yard run.

Creighton Horst, GMC linebacker, and Benton gave their team two more sacks. Coming out of the two-minute warning, there were two more touchdowns to come, the first on a split screen from Brown to Jones for 40 yards.

The Bulldogs were up 44-0 on a safety, and used the last 38 seconds after the free kick for Brown to make his fourth touchdown toss, this one to Smith for 36 yards.

Brown was 14-for-20 in the air for 251 yards. Smith had 102 receiving yards on four catches.

Kinchen scored his second rushing touchdown in the third quarter. The Bulldogs had 305 net yards rushing with Jones leading the way to 96.

The Bulldog defense had six sacks and two interceptions, the second by Kasai Jones.