FOOTBALL: Toombs County too much for Dublin in top-ranked semifinal battle

Two “special” teams converged in Friday’s state semifinal at the Shamrock Bowl. Only one was able to extend its dream season to a 15th game in Atlanta. 

Dublin’s came to an end at the hands of a generational Toombs County squad that had it pretty thoroughly outmatched. The No. 1-ranked Bulldogs got a fight out of the Irish, but pulled away in the second half to win 42-15, and advance to the GHSA state championship for the first time ever. 

“That’s an awful good football team that beat us,” said Dublin head coach Roger Holmes. “I don’t think we played great, I really don’t. But at the end of the day, I think they had a lot to do with that. They’re a good team. I wish them best of luck next week.” 

Toombs, after reaching its program’s first semifinal this season, now sets sights on making some even bigger history as it prepares to challenge fellow “Final Four” newcomer Northeast Macon (a winner in similar fashion at home over Fitzgerald) in the title game Tuesday, Dec. 17 at Mercedes Benz Stadium. 

“It’s special,” second year Toombs County head coach Buddy Martin said as his team celebrated the victory.  “We’re thankful. We’re not going to take it for granted. We’re going to enjoy this, and enjoy the next week. You coach groups that, sometimes, it’s hard to get ’em to lock in. Man, this group is locked in, they’re going to be ready to go Monday. It’s special, and we’re going to enjoy it.” 

The Bulldogs, traveling as a sixth seed in the bracket on the technicality of having not won their region championship (by virtue of a touchdown loss in October to Savannah Christian, which competes in a separate playoff for the GHSA’s A-AAA private state title), were a season-long No. 1 in the state polls, and proved why in a showcase of offensive and defensive weapons that were all in postseason form. 

And it went well beyond the top-flight passing attack that signed all three of its seniors to Division 1 offers last Wednesday. 

Toombs (12-1, 3-1 region 3-High A) only needed to throw sparingly thanks to a ground game that produced 245 yards on 29 carries, an average of more than eight per attempt that quickly set the tone for the game. 

And when the Bulldogs did choose to put it in the air, they rarely missed. 

Georgia State-bound quarterback T.J. Stanley completed 10 of 12 passes (and was a couple first-half drops away from batting a thousand) for 152 yards and three touchdowns. 

Future Florida Gator Lagonza Hayward, with four grabs for the team lead of 74 yards, pulled in two of the scores. Mike Polke, signed with Mercer, had a 39-yard catch and run for the other touchdown. 

The combination of push up front, and passing perfection, prompted the Dublin defense to pick its poison… 

“We knew they could run the football, and we knew how explosive they were throwing,” Holmes said. “We felt like if we were going to have a chance, we needed to stay in two high safeties, and take away some of the pass game. It didn’t take long to figure out we weren’t going to be able to handle the run game. Then we put people back in the box, and they hurt us with the pass game.” 

Both elements helped the Bulldogs post a similar spread of points in the second half, 21-7, to the lead of 21-8 they held after the first. 

There weren’t enough answers to get the Irish through four quarters, though they found enough in the middle two to make a game of it. A bounce-back touchdown, and some stops late in the second helped Dublin get a two-score game to the half, before putting together a pair of quality third quarter drives that squeezed the clock and threatened momentum-changing touchdowns. 

But costly mistakes would prevent points on both key opportunities, and Toombs trekked the field after taking over possession for unanswered scores that spelled an end to the comeback hopes. 

Dublin, after being held to just 91 total yards in the opening half, managed to run its rushing number to 240 by night’s end, but needed much more to offset the missed chances, and an only 4-for-11 success rate on third downs. 

Zyreese Scott, with three tackles for loss to go with a team-high 11 total, and Hayden Roy, with nine total, three for loss and a sack, were the biggest game-wreckers for a Toombs defense that repeatedly collapsed the backfield to a point where too many running plays were over before they could get started. 

“They dominated us up front, defensively,” Holmes said. “We were concerned about their overall team speed, and that was a factor tonight.” 

Nevertheless, Dublin used some adjustments over the break to grind out some key yards, and create itself an opening on the back-to-back third quarter drives that reached or neared the red zone. 

The Irish started the first on their 26, and came out swinging. Two short runs moved the chains before O’Neal broke a big one off a keep, dashing all the way down to the opposing 23 to put them in business. 

But the next play would be blown dead with a flag for illegal procedure. After a play for no gain came losses on a delay of game penalty, and a sack by Roy, that set up third and forever. And Dublin would be forced to kick it away. 

Toombs, despite being pinned at its 15, took the ball methodically to the end zone to add to its lead. 

A costly unnecessary roughness foul early in the drive offered Toombs a 15-yard boost after a handful of yards to start things out. 

Stanley took the next play for a first down, then fit a rope through double coverage into the waiting arms of Hayward on one of his prettiest throws of the night. 

After a few more plays, Stanley snuck for the touchdown, and Alex Otero’s extra point made it 28-8. 

Dublin, unfazed, responded with an even firmer knock on the door after a drive from its own 34 – kept alive by a fake punt as O’Neal pulled the ball down on his rugby-style approach and took off way down the field. 

Most of the run came back on a blindside block, but Dublin – with the first down and a shot of momentum – confidently worked its way inside the 5 on big carries by Xavier Bostic and O’Neal. 

Disaster struck for the Irish on the final snap of the period after Roy dumped a sweep for a loss of two to the 6. With the clock down to a couple seconds, they opted to go ahead with the play, and a pitch out to to the right that went off the hands of Trav Bostic, and fell to the field for a Toombs recovery. 

The ensuing 95-yard drive put the game away, initially on a 34-yard touchdown run by Justin Powell that was called back. But the setback was no problem for Stanley, who dropped off of play action to find a wide-open Polke along the right seam on the next play for a 39-yard score, and the lead was 35-8. 

Dublin punched in its lone second-half touchdown on the next opportunity, beginning with a Sirius Tobridge kick return to start things out just over midfield. 

O’Neal found Batts on a completion to get inside the Toombs 10 for the key play that set up first and goal, and he’d pull the ball for the nine-yard touchdown keeper on the following play. 

The Bulldogs responded with their final score of the night, as Justin Powell carried both times on a two-play drive that covered 57 yards to the end zone. 

His 56 rushing yards went along with the 78 of Dabvn Wadley, though both trailed the tough-running Stanley as Toombs’ leading ground-gainer with 97 on nine keepers. 

Slowing down any of the three was a problem from the outset for Dublin, whose dilemma between respecting the run or pass played out on the Bulldogs’ opening drive, after its deferral of the opening toss. 

The Irish managed to stuff a first run on second down, after an incompletion as Gavin Fletcher dropped a fastball on play 1 from scrimmage, but they couldn’t track down Wadley on a third-and-eight as Stanley flipped him the ball on a speed option for first down yardage. 

The play got things going for Toombs, which proceeded to rip off two more double-digit gains in the hands of Wadley, and got a hand on a subsequent play from a horsecollar tackle penalty that provided a bit of free yardage to set up the six-yard touchdown run of Alex Scott. 

The Bulldogs forced Dublin to punt after six plays, and then drove 84 yards with just as much strength of will to make it 14-0. 

Hayward made a spectacular extending catch to reel in a ball from Stanley for a big first down early in the drive, and caught a strike for the 14-yard touchdown to finish it after being left one-on-one to the field. 

Just a few possessions into the first period, things were in danger of getting out of hand. 

The Irish came up with the drive they needed to get right back in the game, and assert some intended control of possession as well. 

Dublin drove from its own 27, and burned up eight minutes in doing so, to get the ball to the end zone for the first time, and the game deep into the second quarter. 

The Irish, over the course of the night, focused a good bit on their midline option, aligning fullback Xavier Bostic much closer to the line than usual in their double-wing formations to make the reads happen as quickly as possible from the snap. 

Both players involved were the team’s top producers on the game, O’Neal the Dublin leader with 144 yards, and Bostic with 74, including runs that knifed up the gut for three different first downs on the scoring drive. 

O’Neal, toward the end of it, lowered his shoulder on a keeper to get down to the Toombs 2, then handed to Batts on a left-side run that crossed the goal line. 

The Irish had to abort the kick on their extra point, but O’Neal rolled right on the “fire drill” to find D.J. Woodard with a pass for the two-point conversion, and the Bulldogs’ lead was down to 14-8. 

The momentum was short-lived, and swung right back toward the visitors as Polke caught a short kickoff and returned it about 40 yards to set the Bulldogs up with a plus field. 

They rode Wadley inside the 5, then threw back to Hayward on the same slant for another touchdown to go up 21-8. 

The teams traded punts from there to the half, with Scott blowing up a third down option play for the Toombs defense, and Dublin’s Woodard throwing Fletcher for a loss on a first-down screen pass to set up an eventual stop on another dropped ball for Stanley’s second and last incompletion. 

Words were few for the Irish (13-1, 9-0 region 2-High A) in a final postgame huddle, after many hugs were shared and tears shed among players and coaches visibly dejected over the end to a remarkable season and playoff run for a team among the most accomplished in school history. 

The accolades, Holmes said, are no coincidence considering the bar for dedication and team-mindedness that its class of senior leaders set all year. 

“I think it’s a special group of kids simply for the fact of how they came to work every day,” he said. “It may have been the most unselfish bunch that we’ve had here at Dublin in the sense that it didn’t make any difference to anybody how many carries anybody got. I thought that in itself was a great mark of the senior class. I think the assistant coaches we’ve had here have done a heck of a job of molding a group together.” 

The Irish will lose about 16 of them, but have been encouraged by the development of a next generation set to take over some starting reins at a number of key positions next fall. 

“I think we’ve got a good nucleus of football players coming back, so we’ll get in the weight room and see what we can do,” Holmes said. 

Meanwhile, Toombs County is set to continue its state championship pursuit in one more set of practices for a team marked by many of the same qualities, not to mention a once-in-a-blue-moon collection of talent, that will likely be favored to win it all. 

“Our kids got after it,” Martin said. “They’re a special group. They show up every day. They’ve done it two years, this group’s locked in since January. They got after it, I’m proud of them.”