FOOTBALL: Cummings rushes for 8 TDs, state record 613 yards as West Laurens wins 4-quarter sprint with Baldwin

One way or another, Ty Cummings was set to do something historic Friday night as West Laurens continued region play against Baldwin. 

But nobody at the SHU was quite prepared for the magnitude of history he’d make in an incredible performance as the Raiders dusted the Braves in a 70-55 footrace. 

Cummings started the night pursuing a modest sum of 86 yards and two touchdowns needed to beat two school rushing records held by Darius Bradford. 

He ended up doing that, and a whole lot more, going on to run for 613 and eight touchdowns to not only surpass a slew of school and personal highs, but also break Georgia’s all-time single-game yardage record, and come as close as five other all-time challengers to a comparable statewide mark in touchdowns. 

The Georgia Southern commit never seemed to tire, despite ultimately toting the football more than a third of a mile over the three-plus hour game. As a matter of fact, Cummings – whose rare form in the week of practice was noted by coaches before the game – almost got better and harder to catch with each successive carry and long touchdown, none shorter than 50 yards in length. 

“I’ve got to just thank God and the O-line,” Cummings said. “If it weren’t for them, nothing I do would be possible.”

As yardage goes, his unreal effort will go in the books as the best single game ever by a Georgia running back, breaking the record 605 of Coffee’s Tyreese Woodgett set in last year’s state playoffs by eight. 

The touchdowns will tie him for the state’s second-most in a game, six ways with with some elite company in Dalton’s Jahmyr Gibbs, Miller County’s Don Calloway, Pebblebrook’s Thomas Flowers, Hillgrove’s Sonney Harris and North Oconee’s Kawon Bryant. Georgia’s record for scores in a contest remains the 10 of Calhoun’s Kenneth Moore against Acworth back in 1948. 

For school records, Cummings beat both the career marks of Darius Bradford (in rushing yards and touchdowns) that were expected, but also a third in the category of single-game touchdowns where the Raiders’ mid-2010s legend held two-thirds of a tie, by virtue of five-score games vs. Luella and Perry in 2015. “Touchdown” Thomas White was the school’s first to accomplish the feat in a game against Telfair County in 1983. 

The West Laurens record book took a beating all the way around, as Cummings also topped his own record for single game yards, and in nearly doubling his count of TDs (17) and yards (1,326) for the season, is now well on his way to overtaking two similar benchmarks that he also, coincidentally, set in last year’s first-round playoff game against Baldwin. 

The game’s 125 combined points (the 15th highest total in GHSA history according to Georgia High School Football Daily) shattered a previous program high of 86 from last year’s 48-38 win over Aquinas. 

And the Raiders’ 70 is, come to find out, the second-largest number ever put on its side of a scoreboard, trailing only the 72 hung on Pike County by Coach Tim Dixon’s squad of 1997. 

If all that wasn’t enough, West Laurens is also 6-0 for just the second time in history. The only other team to get this far with an unbeaten record was the second that the school ever fielded, coached by program founder Al Manning, in 1973. 

But that group’s first loss would come the following week to Jeff Davis, meaning that the Raiders of 2025 – with a win in their next matchup at Richmond Academy following a bye Oct. 10 – could become the first and only to claim a 7-0 start. 

“We’re proud of it being that situation,” head coach Kip Burdette said. 

Touchdown runs alone – from distances of 59, 91, 75, 53, 59, 59, 86 and 78 – got Cummings to 560 yards on the game, but some bits and pieces of yardage in between on 11 additional carries – including a slide on his last for the final 20 deep in the fourth quarter – pushed him to the all-time record.

Upon review of the game tape later in the weekend, Friday’s informal tally of 615 proved to be just two yards off the official net that was released Sunday by Laurens County Schools athletic director Jeff Clayton. 

Both school records were taken care of in one fell swoop with Cummings’ second score of the night late in the first quarter, to begin and end a drive from the West Laurens 9, as he exploded to the left on the counter to a jet sweep fake, and followed two great blocks from Christian Rozier (who peeled around from right tackle to bury a linebacker) and Trey Williams (already pushing a defender to the second level). 

But he wasn’t anywhere close to done. 

The dazzling display included three more to help get West Laurens to the half leading 42-20 (at which his rushing total was already a school-record 355), and then an additional three in second-half action… each successive carry just a bit more eye-popping than the first. 

More amazing than the sheer numbers, and the continuing opportunities Cummings was afforded by the back-and-forth game, was the mid-blowing fashion in which he effortlessly ran circles around a pretty athletic Baldwin defense. 

No defender laid more than a finger on any of his eight touchdown runs except for the third, as three Braves got a piece on some diving efforts in the backfield. But Cummings made one miss, and brushed the other two off before engaging the afterburners on the way to the outside. 

“If you give him something up front, he’ll make the second and third-level people miss,” Burdette said. “He’s something else, that’s for sure.” 

On the rest, it was as much a blocking clinic as it was a running one, for each member of the Raiders’ 5-7 man offensive line and others representing the skill corps. 

Their traditional quarterback Cason Pollock led the way along with Jonathan Toney on the first, and cleaned the clock of a Brave 10 yards downfield on the fourth. 

He’d also join Evan Williams in escorting Cummings through a wave of white jerseys over the left side on the same student body-lead play for TD No. 5. 

Grady Howell got in with all of the above on the monster mash as Shannon Adkins crashed the party to spell his classmate, and walked in up a huge crease on a run to close the first-half scoring. 

Toney combined with Williams to initiate the footrace on the sixth, and threw another spectacular block on the seventh, with Howell several yards ahead looking to do the same, but instead relegated to the role of pace car with no defender left in sight. 

Williams and Howell created the rift in the front that Cummings hit after some hesitation on the way to No. 8. 

Pollock lowered the shoulder to score the last with about three minutes to go in the game. 

“Man, we just have an unselfish team, and we put it all together in that heavy set,” said Howell, a fellow Georgia Southern commit. “Even in empty, we were just running the ball at their face, we were just physical and dominant.” 

The fans who came to see some history, also saw a great and competitive ballgame, with Baldwin on the other side keeping pretty good pace in the fast-break scoring. 

And all told, it was very likely a record-setting night for the Braves just the same. 

Baldwin snapped the ball 93 times for 703 net yards, with more than 45 plays run in each phase. 

Quarterback Kamden Patterson threw for 442 and fired five touchdown passes, three to Jaylen “Boom” King, while Keilan Walker caught one and rushed for two. 

But if Cummings’ touchdowns – with uncanny timing after their first- and second-half scores to narrow the lead – weren’t enough to put the game away, it was three turnovers on downs and a pair of conventional takeaways that made the final difference for a winded Raider D. 

Baldwin, in contrast to the quick-hitting Raiders, tended to piece together its drives, and strike from much closer in (Patterson’s 40-yard connection with Walker the longest-range score), in the process compiling a possession advantage that only snowballed as the game went on. 

The Braves’ long, drawn-out advances, combined with minimal time to recoup on a number of single-play answers from Cummings, clearly got the Raiders pretty gassed on the defensive side of the ball. 

Baldwin never faced a gap of more than three touchdowns, and closed multiple times to within a single score down the second-half stretch. 

Back-to-back Patterson touchdowns to King out of halftime, around a West Laurens punt, had the Raiders sweating a bit to start the third as its earlier lead of 22 waned to just eight. 

But then two Cummings explosions (in a matter of about six plays) around a third turnover on downs (as Adkins stood in a hole to roundly deny Walker on a fourth-and-goal from the 1) re-stuffed the cushion as things progressed to the fourth quarter. 

Baldwin took some air out of it yet again with the Patterson-to-Walker touchdown to reduce the lead back to 15, and then finally succeeded on a third onside kick try of the game to get the football back. 

But their march was turned back near the goal as Jayce Blash read the mind of Patterson and jumped a King route for the interception. And TC3 scored again on the next play. 

The Braves held serve, with Walker wildcatting in from short range, but a double-barrel unsportsmanlike foul after West Laurens put the clamps on another nerve-wracking onside kick try, would bounce a Baldwin assistant coach and set the Raiders up on a very short field for two plays and a dagger touchdown by Pollock. 

Patterson’s fifth touchdown pass to Jaquan Hill gave the Braves the last word. 

West Laurens halted two of the first three Baldwin drives to the red zone. But the Braves cashed in an early fumble that gave them a do-over of the first, and Walker punched in their first TD. 

Baldwin answered Cummings touchdowns 3 and 4 with scores of its own, a 35-yard Tavares Hooks run, and Patterson’s first touchdown toss to King. 

Ethan Cason-Guyton forced a fumble, and Jaden Stanley recovered, to set up the Adkins touchdown late in the first half. 

Adkins, J.D. Hogan and Jayden Watkins each finished with double-digits in total tackles. Stanley also broke up two passes. 

The victory was as much a team effort as the prior week’s at Harlem, in which his 223 yards and two touchdowns (comparatively small potatoes) was also one piece of many in a winning puzzle. But the spotlight in this one belonged to Cummings, and rightly so in the eyes of teammates who were the proudest of anyone offering congratulations amid the postgame whirlwind of interviews and photo ops. 

The senior would be the last to leave the field, and took his time on a slow walk back toward the school building to soak in the awe-inspiring night. 

Count his head coach among the many who, even having seen the makings in many great games already throughout Cummings’ season and career, were still amazed by what they witnessed.  

“Big game last week, big game the week before, big game tonight… big game tonight being the understatement of the year,” Burdette said. “It was a really impressive night, just the home runs he hit over and over and over again. At this point, I’m just not surprised. I’m just proud of him and proud of our team and proud of our effort.”