Bulldogs held up in comeback attempt

Published 11:40 pm Friday, October 4, 2024

A night that included a lot of fanfare nearly ended with an inspiring comeback by the GMC Prep Bulldogs as they faced the Twiggs County Cobras for Homecoming.

Nearly, but not quite.

Visiting Twiggs (1-0 region, 2-4 overall) played spoiler and held on late to win the region opener over GMC Prep (0-1, 0-6) 24-17.

Pregame ceremonies featured the presentation of state championship rings to the 2024 GMC Prep boys soccer team and the exciting delivery of the night’s game ball from the U.S. Army Silver Wings Parachute Team. They gave all of downtown Milledgeville a spectacle as they dropped into Davenport Field from the sky. Then there was the naming of the 2024 GMC Prep Homecoming Queen, an honor that went to senior Amaya Solomon.

In between the whistles, it was the Cobras of Jeffersonville running out to a 14-3 lead by halftime. After punting the opening possession away, Twiggs got the football right back after GMC Prep fumbled on its second snap. The Cobras needed only cover 26 yards and did with junior running back Harold Crawford providing the punctuating 2-yard touchdown three and a half minutes into the ballgame.

The Bulldogs’ bad fortune continued when it went to punt its next possession away. Twiggs’ Demontrez Brown got into the backfield and blocked the kick, setting the Cobras up around midfield. The GMC Prep defense, though, did what it did much of the night and bowed its neck to force a turnover on downs when Caleb Hinton broke up a pass attempt.

Following a missed short field goal by the home team, Twiggs upped its lead when senior quarterback Brandon Davis slung the football out left to wide receiver classmate Daniel Pitts with eight minutes to go in the half. He covered 77 yards up the visitor’s sideline in a flash to put the Cobras up 14-0 following a two-point conversion after their first attempt was no good.

GMC Prep junior kicker Zac Koehler made up for his earlier field goal miss when he booted an impressive 42-yarder through to give the home team its first points of the night at 3:30 to go in the second. The score stayed at 14-3 Twiggs through halftime.

Twiggs added a safety late in the third when a GMC fumble squirted into the Bulldogs’ end zone. The ‘Dogs recovered, but couldn’t advance the ball back over the goal line to give the Cobras a little more cushion at 16-3.

GMC Prep finally reached the opponent’s end zone midway through the final period. Hinton was the spark as he ran around right end for 38 yards down to the Cobra 2. On the next play, quarterback Logan McMillan, making his first start of the regular season following an elbow injury sustained in a scrimmage, snuck across the goal line to bring his team back within one score for the first time since early in the second.

Down just 16-10 with six minutes to play, there was still hope for a GMC Prep team whose night had been full of offensive struggles.

“Twiggs did a lot of stuff different defensively,” Bulldogs head coach Gavin Tierce said. “They did a great job of changing their scheme on defense and doing things we were not expecting. Hats off them for putting together a great plan.”

The defense needed just one more stop, and seemed to have it. On 3rd-and-5 around the 50, a Twiggs sweep was stuffed by a host of GMC Prep tacklers.

Then came a personal foul flag on the Bulldogs.

“Supposedly, the refs said one of our players who had just made the tackle threw a punch,” Tierce said. “I think if you take that play away, we win the football game.”

Throwing a punch is supposed to come with an automatic ejection, but Tierce said his player was not removed from the game in what was one of many inconsistencies by the officiating crew throughout the night.

That call alone did not cause the ‘Dogs to lose on Homecoming, though. The dagger came a few plays later. Cobra sophomore Zonrequeo Mays went into the teeth of the GMC Prep defense 17 yards down to the 9. Davis covered the rest on a carry around the left side on the next play. The ensuing two-point conversion made it 24-10 Twiggs with 2:20 remaining.

Down but not out, the Bulldogs added one more touchdown when McMillan lobbed a pass some 20 yards to the back of the end zone to a waiting Kolby Thompson, who made a great contested catch with 21 seconds left. The extra point brought the game to its final tally before Courdon Parker of Twiggs recovered the ensuing onside kick.

While the win/loss result was the same for the Bulldogs, the offense did make strides. Friday’s 17 points were a season high.

“It’s hard when you’ve got so many dudes going both ways to make full offensive adjustments between series,” said Tierce. “Once we finally did, we settled in and had some pretty good success.”

McMillan’s return helped. He looked good on option keepers early and connected on some big throws while also taking a beating.

“Having Logan back added another dimension to the offense and really took some stress off our running backs,” said Tierce. “He did a great job carrying the load for us and doing some stuff we haven’t been able to do all year. That’s no shot at [backup QB] Matthew Webster. Logan’s running ability in our offense turns it into a four-running back system, which is very tough to defend a lot of times.”

The Bulldogs hope to take the momentum gained at the end of Friday’s matchup into next week at Hancock Central.

Meanwhile, Twiggs is suddenly sporting a two-game winning streak heading into their next scheduled matchup at home against Glascock County.