FOOTBALL: Clutch TDs, key tackles help West Laurens survive trouble to take down Jenkins in quarterfinal

With each successive game this fall, West Laurens’ season of history has looked more and more like a season of destiny. 

Friday’s quarterfinal round brought another installment of the first, in a 13th win to get the Raiders closer to the improbable second than they’ve ever come before. 

Some state championship dreams that – weeks ago, even on the heels of a 10-0 regular season finish and the region 4-AAA title, still seemed a bit fantastic – are now realer than ever as they sit just one more victory from reaching Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and two from winning it all. 

Trends of physical defense, Ty Cummings’ explosiveness and clutch third-down conversions each continued (though mistake-free football will have to be excluded from this week’s list) as West Laurens did what it’s done in the three phases for most of the season to take the upper hand in an intense game, and hold off a literal last-minute rally by sixth-ranked Jenkins to win 21-16 and advance to the GHSA state semifinals for the first time in school history. 

“We’re excited to be here,” said Raiders head coach Kip Burdette. “I’d love to be able to take all the credit, but it’s just not the case. It’s these kids and these assistant coaches. They got it done tonight. I’m really proud of the effort.” 

The fifth-seeded Warriors had won back-to-back fourth quarters, after trailing Whitewater and ninth-ranked Peach County early in the two previous weeks, to reach the round of eight, and were once again at their toughest to beat in the last 12 minutes. 

This time, though, the Jenkins deficit was a bit too big, too late as it left a slim margin for error and too little time in the end for a chance at its third come-from-behind playoff win in a row. 

West’s Shannon Adkins shed a block for the tackle of scrambling quarterback Demetrius Holloway that forced a turnover on downs to seemingly slam the door with the Raiders up 11, and 3:27 left to play. 

But Jenkins conjured some hope by getting the ball back in the final minute for a lickety-split scoring drive, then recovering an onside kick to set up a one-play shot that failed as time expired. 

There were some huge plays: Two Cummings rushing touchdowns and a clutch fourth-down scoring completion between Cason Pollock and Juvon Hill that stretched the West Laurens lead to the final 11 late in the third quarter. But the game seemed to hinge mostly on some small particulars that, with one different turn or another, might have produced a different outcome. 

Among those were a key Jenkins drop of a potential pick-six and some Raider tackles to save bigger plays, and likely long touchdowns by some playmaking weapons who were dangerous in the open field. 

Another remarkably pivotal moment came just before the aforementioned West Laurens stop, as the Warriors moseyed to the line for a must-have fourth down, and had to burn a timeout against the ticking play clock. 

That would cost them a chance to preserve some key extra seconds on the eventual drive to pull within a score of the lead, as a Jayce Blash-J.D. Hogan tackle at the 1 kept Jaden Hooper out of the end zone on a 29-yard Holloway completion that threatened to punch it in with a solid 20 still left. 

Instead, the clock sank to nine as Jenkins had to hustle to the line and run another play to score. 

Holloway found an open Dominique Johnson in the right corner for the single-yard TD, though his conversion (backed up five yards by a costly delay of game penalty) was pressured incomplete by a hot rush from Jayden Watkins to leave it a five-point game, rather than a more workable field goal margin. 

All of the above left Jenkins in a desperate position after it got a fortunate bounce on the onside kick of Joshua Woodley, with a leaping Pollock unable to bring the ball in as he leapt to grab it off a springy second bounce. The Jenkins recovery left seven seconds for a play from the 46 on its own side of midfield. 

The Warriors, once again plagued by some miscommunication, went with a short checkdown to the left flat that, judging from reactions, was supposed to be a lateral to set up a forward pass. 

So Jaylen Elliott’s short chuck forward to Hooper, as Blash and Leroy Mack attempted to wrap him up, would in fact have been be an illegal pass. 

The point was moot, as Mack, Adkins and Jermidous Brown tackled the secondary receiver, and officials had already ruled Elliott down before the release, therefore negating a penalty that would have been declined to end the game one way or the other. 

Flags, up to the last minute, were a recurring theme on both sides. And as much as the repeated mistakes would hurt the visitors down the stretch (Jenkins was penalized 12 times for 55 yards), a good many preventable ones hampered the Raiders early in a game that had them facing two opponents: Jenkins and themselves. 

West Laurens committed 11 penalties, at the cost of 85 yards, and at least a handful of big plays. 

There were no turnovers, although both sides came very close to forcing a handful… the Raiders narrowly avoiding three of them in the first half, as Cummings had trouble with the ball on two punt returns and the Warriors nearly came up with a pick-six that was dropped as Michael Jackson undercut the pattern on a long pass across the field. 

West’s Jaden Stanley nearly had a diving interception earlier in that ill-fated Jenkins series late in the fourth, but the pass was ruled incomplete a few plays before the eventual turnover on downs. 

The uncharacteristic night, fortunately, wasn’t too much to overcome. 

“We did not play our best football tonight, and you would like to be playing your best football this time of year,” Burdette said. “We kind of sputtered along in the first half and didn’t want to come out all systems go. But came out after half, played pretty good defense all night, and kept them out of the end zone. We had a pretty good night all around, played good complimentary football and ran the ball pretty well in the second half. There were a bunch of knucklehead penalties we’re going to have to fix before next week.” 

Despite the challenges, the Raiders were able to start fast, defensively with a hard-hitting three and out, then offensively with an 80-yard scoring drive their first chance with the ball. 

Two Pollock throws and a determined Cummings run moved the chains on thirds-and-medium (each on series that began with a first-down loss) before the Georgia Southern-committed tailback ripped his his way through a big hole on the right, and into the open field with one of his patented shake-outs to leave a defender frozen at the 25, from 36 yards for the game’s first touchdown. 

But West Laurens was penalized for taunting after the score, and had to kick from its own 25 in a mishap that probably led to Jenkins’ first points in response. 

The Warriors, whose feared playmaker Johnson had housed three returns on the season, started their second possession off a short squib kick at the West Laurens 46, and scored in a matter of plays. Holloway found Johnson on a swing pass, and the senior slipped a tackle and tightroped the sideline to reach the end zone, for a Woodley kick that tied it at 7. 

But his big plays were mostly nonexistent the rest of the night. 

“I asked coach (Kenny) Murphy on Sunday what he thought about him, and he said if we do what we’re supposed to do, I think we can slow him down. And we did,” Burdette said. “Excellent job by our defensive staff and defensive players.” 

All three other Jenkins drives in the first half, starting in much deeper territory, ended with punts. 

Save for the ending sequence, West Laurens gave them just four more good possessions in the second, forcing one other punt and a turnover on downs in between two sets of points – a first three as the Warriors settled for a 25-yard Woodley field goal early in the third quarter. 

The Raider defense allowed only 89 yards rushing, and held the top-scoring offense in AAA to only 240 total yards, the remaining 151 belonging to Holloway on a 13-for-22 passing line, and just three pickups on 10 third downs. 

Mack led the bunch with 10.5 total stops. Adkins added nine and Watkins 8.5, with Maxx Chafin and Zorian Willis picking up tackles for loss. 

“They had quick guys,” Hill said. “We just had to execute.”

The West Laurens offense faced a loaded box, as Jenkins sold out heavily to stopping the run, and still had some trouble slowing the Raiders down when backs were able to find lanes to cut north-south. 

Gains were hard-earned, but Cummings was able to grind out 234 of the Raiders’ 288 rushing yards. Adkins carried six times for an additional 25 and multiple short-yardage conversions. Branden Brooks picked up 18 on nine attempts. 

“It was physical, fistfight,” said senior O-lineman Grady Howell, who is set to sign with Georgia Southern this week. “Most physical team, strongest team, that’s how we get it done.” 

The Warriors’ defensive posture created some openings in the secondary that Pollock took advantage of on six completions (out of 11) that were all difference-makers. 

Of Hill’s four catches for 73, three were chain-movers (on perfectly-timed hitch patterns to keep scoring drives moving in the first and third) and a fourth scored the night’s biggest set of points. 

Pollock, who also found Cummings on an underneath drag to re-set the sticks on the Raiders’ opening drive, credited some rock-solid protection from his blockers for the ability to literally step up in the clutch performance. 

“It was huge,” Pollock said. “They were really big up front and the line held up well… Without them, I’m not able to step up in the pocket like I was on all the balls tonight. I never really had any type of bad footwork or anything. I was able to step into pretty much everything, and that’s all credit to them and my wide receivers making plays.” 

West Laurens continued its long opening streak of third-down conversions (five in a row leading to an 8-of-13 mark for the night) on a second drive, but came up empty for the first time after Cummings’ long second-down run was called back on a penalty that set them way behind the chains. 

The next reached midfield and survived another third and long to mount a threat, but ended on downs after another series of costly penalties. 

The only sack of the game was taken by Cummings to conclude the first half as Pollock left the game for a play after being shaken up on a run for a first down. 

“It was good pass pro,” Howell said. “It’s surreal being in the semifinals, and we just got the job done.” 

Cummings quickly broke the game’s 7-7 halftime tie as he crashed his way through a closing window as a play that Jenkins defenders had presumed a foregone wrap-up turned into an 80-yard takeoff down the left sideline. 

“We just knew we had to battle adversity,” he said. “We came out of halftime, set the tone early and hey, we’re in the final four now.” 

A roughing the passer penalty gave Jenkins a leg up on its way to the red zone in an effort to answer, and a third-down completion from Holloway to KeMari Wright set up a goal-to-go series that stood a strong chance of tying the game. 

It got tense… Willis flipped Wright like a pancake on a tackle in space. Then, the Raiders dodged a bullet on a bust, as they had to concede a pass interference penalty to prevent a touchdown. But an offsetting illegal shift provided a mulligan, and Stanley and Watkins combined on a tackle of Ryan Scott before Holloway missed Johnson on a throw to the left of the end zone to bring on the field goal unit, which cut the Westside lead to 14-10. 

Woodley proceeded to nail his third touchback of the game on the ensuing kickoff to force the Raiders to go 80 yards in response. But they did to increase the spread to 11. 

The drive encountered more various toils and snares after Cummings was caught, by Jackson and the sideline, on consecutive double-digit carries that had a chance to go the distance. Back-to-back Jenkins tackles, as the Raiders moved just over midfield, forced them into a fourth and 11 on which Pollock again climbed a comfy pocket to sail one to a wide-open Hill in the middle of the end zone. 

“It was a long route,” Pollock said. “The line did a great job all night long, honestly. Juvon’s gonna go make plays if I throw him the ball. When we get the chance to throw, we can’t miss ’em.” 

The 36-yard touchdown strike, and Duggan Malone’s point-after, made it 21-10. 

“It was very exciting,” Hill said. “I saw them going man-to-man I knew my boy Cason could put it on the money and make a play happen. We’ve got good chemistry together, all since elementary school. We’ve just got to keep going.” 

The Raiders head to the semifinals with a few questions about the health of their top runner. 

Cummings got a little banged up at separate points in Friday’s game, leaving briefly in the first half with an injury unrelated to the ailing ankle that he aggravated before a permanent exit midway through the fourth quarter. 

His loss for the last few minutes, which may have prevented West Laurens from running out the clock on its own, put a slight damper on the late-game excitement, though postgame feelings from both Cummings and coaches, were optimistic. 

“I think he’s all right,” Burdette said. “If you ask him, he’s always good to go. We’ll get him some treatment and see what he feels like.” 

“It’s great,” Cummings said, roundly dismissing any concern. “I feel perfectly fine.” 

Top-seeded Jefferson, the defending AAA state runner-up, will be the matchup Friday as the Raiders go on the road for the first time since October in search of a win to clinch a spot in the state championship game. 

The Dragons (12-1, 5-0 region 8-AAA) overcame a sticky first half, and an early 21-0 deficit, to advance past Cairo 47-28 Friday at Jefferson Memorial Stadium, which remains one of the state’s most difficult places to win in the playoffs. 

It is host to a current nine-game postseason win streak, and just four Jefferson losses since the school’s last state championship in 2012. 

“They’ve been a good team,” Cummings said. “We’ve just gotta come in, battle adversity, battle the home field advantage from them and have a good game.” 

But the facility will be a familiar one for Burdette, as much as others around the West Laurens program who visited last nine years ago – prior to some recent upgrades – for a second-round matchup in the 2016 state playoffs. 

“It’s going to be a really nice venue,” Burdette said. “The state track guys and I have been up there a million times for that state track meet. It’s a really nice place… We’re looking forward to the challenge.”