Dublin dominates at Vidalia to clinch region 2-AA championship

What unfinished work that remained in Dublin’s quest to clinch the region 2-AA championship seemed pretty cut and dry Friday night in as businesslike a road win as the Irish could have drawn up. 

They didn’t miss a step, out of the few short ones left, on the pathway to their sixth victory in a row and an eighth of the season to sign, seal and deliver a 20th league title in school history. 

A dominant ground game and pass rush featured in the well-balanced performance, which had some great symmetry between two halves that each included four touchdowns and a defensive takeaway, to defeat Vidalia 48-6 at Buck Cravey Field. 

Though happy to reach this early-season milestone, Dublin (8-1, 5-0 region) will quickly move on to some much bigger goals for this fall that lie in the upcoming state playoffs. And its hopes of securing a coveted top seed in the AA tournament will depend significantly on closing out a once-beaten regular season in this coming week’s senior night matchup with rival East Laurens. 

A beastly performance by Dontavious Cannon, who sprung numerous big plays for 185 yards and two touchdowns on his 11 carries, headlined Friday’s well-rounded rushing effort. 

But there were ample big plays to go around for others: V.J. Bond rolled up 91 yards and a touchdown on three attempts. Jamarcus Knight had 82 and a TD on nine, Trav Bostic 62 on eight and Jayden McRae 53 on six. 

Quarterback Ryland Yates scored twice on six keepers, and threw to Will Wallace for a third and final Irish touchdown deep in the fourth quarter. 

Deontae Walker forced a first-half fumble that Kye Young recovered, and McRae intercepted a fourth-quarter pass that was altered by a hit on the pressure of Domimarkeyo Walden, for the defense’s turnover forcing plays. 

Jalen Dardy led a menacing Dublin pass rush with a sack and two tackles for loss. 

Vidalia’s only scoring came post-halftime, just after the Irish increased their lead to 35-0, when Tyler McKinney brought back his second third-quarter kickoff in as many weeks to the end zone. 

But the Indians, offensively, could do very little on just 98 total yards. 

Marquis Harvey, with 44 yards, and Jah Robinson, with 27, had the bulk of their rushing production while freshman QB Gavin Reynolds completed only six out of 18 passing attempts for 31 yards. 

Dublin’s 47 rushing attempts, meanwhile, yielded a grand total of 556. 

The Irish mixed up their drive lengths, busting big plays to get two to the end zone in a single play, while hiking their way a few yards at a time to others. 

Their earliest score was one of the former, as Bond ripped his way up a crease in the defense off the left side to go 63 yards, and put the Green and Gold on the scoreboard in one fell swoop following a punt on Vidalia’s opening series. 

The next covered the same amount of ground in eight plays. Multiple backs had positive carries – a biggest of 30-plus for Knight – in the sequence that concluded with a short plunge up the middle by McRae to stretch the Dublin lead to 13-0, where it remained after a failed conversion attempt out of the “polecat,” on which Yates was upended a yard shy on an option keeper.   

Vidalia made some progress on offense, but punted on its next two drives. 

The Irish, sidetracked by a penalty on the possession between, would have to reciprocate before getting back to work with another first-play score midway through the second quarter as Cannon did his best Ja’Ques Evans impression on a breakaway run of 63 to the house. 

The play was one of many open-field highlights for the senior fullback, who’s used to runs of the more grinding variety but in this one, got a chance to open the throttle and shake a few of the tacklers from whom he normally invites contact. 

Bostic ran right for the two-point conversion. 

Knight took the end around left behind a Bostic clean-out block seven yards for the final first-half touchdown on the end of a piecemeal 58-yard drive. 

Another Vidalia punt left 86 seconds on the clock to work with, and the Irish were  moving toward another potential TD before intermission. But a penalty called back a long Knight counter play, and the Irish decided to let it go to half. 

An issue with the second-half kickoff, which got over Knight’s head to start Dublin at its own 10, was no issue. 

Four plays got the Irish 80 yards, the latter two 30-plus yard gains by Cannon and Bostic, and after three more short ones with goal to go, Yates spilled left on a keeper for the TD and a 35-0 lead. 

There was a brief lull in the aftermath of Vidalia’s special teams response, as an early-series fumble in the backfield helped lead to a Dublin punt. 

But the Irish got it back soon enough and drove 60 for their next touchdown, with Cannon going 40 on the first play after an opening penalty, and Yates sneaking the ball in on the ensuing third and goal. 

Dublin added its last points early in the running-clock fourth as Yates eluded pressure on a winding rollout long enough to release a throw across his body that found Wallace in stride near the back line of the end zone.