FRIDAY NIGHT SCOREBOARD: Big road victories for Dublin, Trinity in week 1

Dublin rolled on the road and Trinity rebounded to even its record on the winning side of a split Friday night for Laurens County. Johnson County and Bleckley County took decisive wins over East and West Laurens in the other half of the local results for week 1.

Here’s a glance at how each played out, and your area-wide scoreboard. Full coverage to follow early next week in print and online.

Dublin 32, Jasper Co. 0

Kye Young, JaKarian Jones and Trav Bostic picked off passes, and Bostic returned his for the night’s first touchdown, in a dominant opening-night display for the Irish defense. Things were a bit slow to get rolling on the other side, but snowballed quickly as Matthew Batts, V.J. Bond and Jamarcus Knight scored rushing touchdowns to expand the lead to 25-0 before halftime. Bostic polished things off with a touchdown run of his own for the lone points of the second half. 

Trinity 14, Robert Toombs 8

Will-J Harris carried for touchdowns of three and 15 yards in the third and fourth quarters to lift the Crusaders to their first win of the season, despite a minefield of toils and snares on their other eight possessions that included two fumbles, a blocked punt and a stymied fourth down. Trinity, for its part, held three times on downs and took the ball away twice (Harris on an early interception and Jackson Jones with a recovered fumble) to keep it scoreless through half. RTCA broke a big play for its only touchdown as AJ Jinks broke free for a 68-yard run to the house, and put the home team back in front 8-6, by a two-pointer. A three-minute, 40-yard drive with only a few minutes left to play reclaimed the lead, and Trinity would reclaim the ball via fumble on the ensuing kickoff in order to run out the clock. Jude Evans led Crusader rushers with 107 yards. Harris had 92, and Tayt Evans 61.

Bleckley Co. 28, West Laurens 3

The contrast was apparent between an experienced, veteran team on the visiting side and the young, developing one still piecing things together on the home. The Raider defense came through as hoped with some key third down stops to keep it close until two Bleckley touchdowns in the fourth quarter put it away, but outside of a couple quality drives in the second quarter (one netting a three-spot as Duggan Malone connected on a 29-yard field goal, and the other a one-minute drill that covered about 70 yards to produce a bonus scoring chance that time and timeouts ran short on going into the half), West Laurens couldn’t move the ball consistently. Bleckley leaned on a steady rushing attack for the last three of its four scores, two on the part of Zyion Love and another by Kix Foskey, after Brody Fleming drew first blood on an incisive 14-yard touchdown pass to Gage Harris late in quarter 1.

Johnson Co. 32, East Laurens 15

It was the Jeremiah Scott show in the Trojans’ 10th win out of the last 11 Border Wars. The junior toted it for two touchdowns, caught Chance Wombles passes for two more and intercepted an East Laurens pass… most of that before halftime… on his way to 187 all-purpose yards. Jeremiah Taylor added 16 carries for 94 yards, and Jacaden Webb another rushing TD on 81. Wombles completed four passes for 87. The Falcons compiled 216 total yards, with Skyler Snead responsible for the bulk on nine completions for 76 and eight rushes for 63. Major Floyd also caught six passes for 57, but the JoCo defense halted them on downs three times in the first half, and only allowed touchdowns on runs by Jaden Griffin and Jeremiah Rozier after having grabbed a four-score lead at the start of the third quarter. 

Other area finals…

Montgomery Co. 22, Telfair Co. 15

Cook 36, Swainsboro 35 (OT)

Treutlen 36, Bryan Co. 7

Jeff Davis 37, Vidalia 0

Baldwin 47, Washington Co. 20

ACE Charter 45, Wilkinson Co. 6

Northside 42, Eagle’s Landing 6

Peach Co. 63, Perry 24

Windsor 7, Thomas Jefferson 6

Valdosta 52, Jones Co. 14

Bulloch 36, Brentwood 33

Stratford 46, Pacelli 14

Warner Robins 34, Veterans 23

John Milledge 38, Tiftarea 0

ECI 26, Metter 7

Toombs Co. 58, Benedictine 21

Central Macon 30, Greenville 0

Howard 27, Southwest Macon 6