MIDSTATE FOOTBALL ROUNDUP: Treutlen gains steam with Thursday-night trampling of MoCo; Twiggs' rough region road continues

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Treutlen 46, Montgomery Co. 6

Deciding factor: The Vikings completed nary a pass, but rushed for 322 yards and scored once each in both the defensive and special teams phases to take a playoff-clinching third region win – their fifth overall – by storm in this Thursday-night runaway. Zan Stokes (their rushing leader with 111 yards) and Peyton Miller (with 50) ran for two touchdowns and a non-offensive score apiece. The Treutlen defense also held MoCo without points on at least five red zone visits, giving up a lone touchdown as Landon Williams broke loose to the end zone on a 31-yard run to finish off the opening drive of the second half. But that only reduced the Vikings’ early lead to 20 points.

Pivotal moment: Miller brought back the opening kickoff 71 yards for a touchdown, and it was all downhill from there. Though a tipped point-after kick left the lead at 6-0, Treutlen quickly added to it, forcing an Eagle punt, and jamming in a first offensive touchdown on Miller’s five-yard carry less than five minutes later. Two chances for MoCo to reverse the early momentum, on drives deep into Viking territory, were denied on turnovers – a Miller interception at the 1, then another pick that Stokes returned 85 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter. Zion Brown’s touchdown run nailed home their 26-0 halftime lead.

ZAN MASTER: Treutlen’s Zan Stokes races by two Eagles inside the 10-yard line for one of his three touchdowns in Thursday night’s win/LOGAN REYNOLDS, GTLN

Game ball: Though Stokes exceeded his total in all-purpose yardage by a count of 196-121, it was Miller’s tone-setting kickoff return, in addition to his matching hand in a turnover and three touchdowns, that won the night for Treutlen.

Next: Vikings vs. Dooly Co., Friday

Glascock Co. 43, Twiggs Co. 14

Deciding factor: The Cobras got a couple of stops by forcing fumbles, but otherwise couldn’t slow down a Glascock County ground attack that churned out all of its 415 yards. Close to half of Twiggs’ 256 came on big play-fueled drives to score early and late.

Pivotal moment: The Panthers were driving to potentially go up two touchdowns to none, when a Cobra defender pried the ball loose from behind as a runner fought for extra yardage on the end of a play. Off the recovery, Twiggs hit a 66-yard touchdown on a swing-out from Jeremy Stanley to Demontrez Brown that tied the game at 6. But Glascock scored twice more and the rest of its 37 unanswered points before a final touchdown.

Game ball: Stanley threw for both the Cobras’ TDs, connecting with a back on a short dump-off for the second late in the game after finding some open field on a 50-yard scramble to reach the red zone.

Next: Cobras vs. Hancock Central Oct. 24

Best of the rest…

Baldwin 27, Hephzibah 25: The Braves got caught in a crazy second half for a third-consecutive game. This time, they escaped with a two-point lead thanks to the 15-yard go-ahead touchdown run of Jacob Hester, and a stop of a game-tying two-point conversion attempt as the entire Baldwin defense encircled Reante Byrd a few yards from the end zone on a run to the left edge. Hephzibah’s Reante Byrd threw for three touchdowns (two to Dextavion Reese) and rushed for a fourth to get the Rebels within two of a tie in the back-and-forth leadup to a climactic fourth quarter. The Braves recovered their own pooch kick right after Hester’s touchdown to extend the lead to eight, but then fumbled at the edge of the red zone, opening the door for a three-minute Hephzibah drive to score on the third touchdown pass of Byrd, of 22 yards to Roosevelt Habersham. But the conversion and onside kick failed, and Baldwin ran out the remaining 50 seconds. Reserve quarterback Jordan Torrance completed 12 of 19 passes for 103 yards and three Braves touchdowns. Tavares Hooks rushed 18 times for 128. Byrd rushed for 99 on 14 carries, and threw six completions for 136 yards.

Central Fellowship 51, Heritage 19: Judson Walls, still nursing a broken elbow, made his return in a heavy cast. and rushed for triple digits and two touchdowns to lead the Lancers to a record-evening fourth win. Shepherd Tanner and Terrell Coley Jr. also scored rushing touchdowns to help CFCA to a 48-12 halftime lead in the rout.

Click here to read a full recap from the Macon Melody’s Micah Johnston.

FROM CENTRAL CASTING: Judson Walls (7) runs for a first down during the Lancers’ win over Heritage Friday night. The senior running back, with a mending broken elbow set safely in a thick cast, made it back just in time for his senior night, and delivered as tough a rushing performance as you could have scripted in his return from a three-week injury outage/JASON VORHEES, for the Macon Melody

GMC 36, Hancock Central 28: Milledgeville’s Bulldogs trailed for a good chunk of both halves of football, but finished the game strong to go to 3-0 in region play, and level their record for the season at .500. Cason Dennis rushed for three touchdowns, one early in between field goals by Zac Koehler that make it an even 14 points apiece at the half, then two more that went along with a Walt Greene score and a turnover to outrun Hancock down the stretch. After a week off, GMC will face both Wilcox County and Johnson County in a two-game stretch that will determine this year’s 5-Low A champion.

Hawkinsville 19, Telfair Co. 0: Sebastian Clark, who was a perfect 4-for-4 passing with 40 yards and two touchdowns, and rushed for 63 and a third score on 11 carries, had the key plays that got the Red Devils past a stubborn Telfair County defense and into the end zone. A scoreless game survived Hawkinsville’s earliest threat off a fake field goal in the first quarter, but not Clark’s pass to Martin McDonald for a 20-yard touchdown that broke the silence with five minutes to go before halftime. He connected with Johnathan Solomon on a backdoor throwback for another to add some insurance in the third, before juking out of a couple of sure tackles for the dagger score in the fourth. Solomon led the Red Devils defensively with six total tackles, three for loss and a sack. Nieem Blair was Hawkinsville’s only triple-digit gainer, with 100 rushing yards on 12 carries.

Jeff Davis 34, Bacon Co. 17: The Yellow Jackets offset their two fumbles by forcing three turnovers (two on inteceptions by Mark Durden), and looked to their ground game to help dig out of a slight early hole to lead 20-17 at the half and pull away with two fourth-quarter touchdowns. Kobe Hill rushed for 124 yards, Ian Griffin 76 and Durden 71, along with a touchdown each. R.J. Simms scored twice.

Jones Co. 33, ELCA 21: After back-to-back wins at the wire, this one was comparatively stress-free for the Grayhounds, who scored 13 points in both the first and third quarters to build up a 26-7 lead with 12 minutes to go, and a four-score edge with their final touchdown early in the fourth. Cason Taylor threw for four touchdowns, two to Nate Vaughn. ELCA used a deep shot touchdown from Luke Stansell to Cameron Matthews, and an interception that set up a subsequent rushing score, to create a 14-point swing in the last seven minutes, but far too late.

Swainsboro 42, Savannah Country Day 14: The Tigers’ defense, and defensive special teams, had quite the night on the road in Savannah, as Shannon Benjamin and Ashton McCastle intercepted passes (the latter for a 17-yard pick-six), and both Derek Hughes and Christian Tarver blocked punts. Marco Danford, who ran back the last of those for a touchdown, added offensive scores on a rush, two receptions and 156 yards from scrimmage. Joshua Gray was 10-of-15 passing for 194 yards and three touchdowns. Kyle Johnson rushed for 109 yards. Swainsboro trailed 14-0 after early SCD touchdowns by Devin Trawick and James Pannell, but rebounded to score three times before the half, and thrice more unanswered after the half. The Tigers had roughly 200 yards each rushing and passing. They held the Hornets to 255 total.

John Milledge 34, FPD 17: The Trojans turned a surprisingly competitive game into a win over the Major Simmons-less Vikings, with 17 unanswered points to close out their fourth-consecutive and seventh-overall victory. FPD got a look at its quarterbacking future in the debut of Cash Walker (filling in for Simmons, who was out with a concussion). The freshman was 12-of-17 for 144 yards, and threw touchdowns to Breck Griffin and Tinsley Lewis, the latter to put the Vikings up 21-17 early in the third quarter. But John Milledge outgained the Vikings by 224 yards. Jamel Cooper scored twice on 18 carries for 172 of them. Lewis Cheney was 13-of-17 passing for 152 yards and two scores.

RIGHT DOWN MILLEDGE AVENUE: JMA running back Jamel Cooper slips a tackle and picks up a few more yards after finding a nice, wide running lane during the Trojans’ win over FPD/DONN RODENROTH, for the Macon Melody

Westside, Macon 28, Pike Co. 16: The Seminoles ended their six-game losing streak with the help of James Neville, who completed 12 passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns (to Paul Risper and Jayden Williams), and also rushed for one of the other two. An opening-drive score, followed by two turnovers on downs and tip-drill interception sealed the victory in the second half.

Wilcox Co. 43, Dooly Co. 0: The Patriots’ defense gave up only 65 total yards, and intercepted four passes. Jacobia Bolden returned one of his two for a touchdown. Melvin McAdoo, who joined Kaleb Smith with one each of the remaining picks, had 108 of Wilcox County’s 279 rushing yards, and two touchdowns. Tyler Tisdol, adding one on the ground, returned a punt roughly 50 yards for the final score.

Southwest Georgia 16, Robert Toombs 14: The Warriors, led by Colt Williams’ 29 carries for 174 yards, hung onto the last shred of a 16-0 lead after a pair of touchdowns and two-point conversions in the first half. RTCA kicked points-after on its third- and fourth-quarter scores to chip away, and were still left with a deficit after the four-yard run of Jordan Brown to get within two. Everything went according to plan for the Crusaders, who’d recover their ensuing onside kick from a scrum, and drive to field goal range with time winding down. But they wouldn’t get the opportunity for a try at the win after Blake Durden had the ball stripped out on the run after a catch, and SGA recovered to run out the clock.