West Laurens comes back from 3 TDs down to win another thriller at Dodge County

EASTMAN – It was a rollercoaster-type game reminiscent of… well, the last two times West Laurens and Dodge County played each other at Memorial Stadium. 

The teams’ 2026 battle, a 29th in their rivalry history, borrowed a bit from the defensive aspect of the Raiders’ most recent visit in 2022 – the debut and first career win of current head coach Kip Burdette – that was highlighted by five Indian turnovers and clinched with a fourth down tackle for loss by Jaydon Jackson. 

The sheer craziness of this one, marked by plays that would’ve been one thing but turned out to be another, and a West Laurens reversal to erase a three-score deficit, also reminded a good bit of a similar turning-point victory there seven years ago… which also featured a pick-six and kickoff return among four Dodge County touchdowns, but also a Raider rally from two behind to win by three of them in an early springboard to their 2019 region championship.  

In Friday’s return, West Laurens would trail 22 points early in the second quarter, but score 23 unanswered the rest of the way, holding twice in a row on downs in the last five minutes of the game to secure the win, 30-29, in a major growing-up moment for its young team playing a first game on the road.  

“It was a lot of back and forth, but I’m just proud of our team and the way they responded,” Burdette said. “Hopefully we’ll grow from this, get a little confidence and know that we can hang in there.” 

In the end, the Raiders (1-1 overall) continued their long-running pattern of good mojo playing in Eastman, which is the site of five out of their eight all-time wins over Dodge, and in all but one of the teams’ last six meetings there. Accompanying trends of unpredictable momentum swings were also in full effect. 

The game featured three non-offensive touchdowns, all in opportune or inopportune spots, depending on which side you were sitting. All three of the game’s turnovers were just as pivotal.

West Laurens, whose only takeaway was a fumble, had a chance to force at least six more in the form of interceptions that were either just out of reach, dropped or hit the turf just before a low catch by defenders. 

Strange bounces of the ball led to plenty of other key plays. 

Early in the game, Dodge (1-1) benefited from two of them amid an opportune start that included an onside kick recovery, a pick-six, and one of those near-interceptions going the other way… in a situation with about eight different potential outcomes that happened to result in a big play for receiver Jauriel Bray. 

Maxx Chafin got a hit on quarterback Kain Mincey as he released a rushed throw into danger, but the ball went through the hands of teammate Leroy Mack, and wound up in the mitts of Bray for a close to 50-yard gain that set up goal to go, and a touchdown on the next play. 

For a second-straight week, Dodge converted its guard Keyzan Harris into a running back, and set up a scrum to easily whisk him into the end zone from about four yards away. 

A fourth touchdown in the first 16 minutes had the Indians, up 29-7, in position to run off with the game. 

But the West Laurens defense had other ideas, and shut them out by forcing four punts, a fumble, a missed field goal and three takeaways on downs from that point forward. 

“We went down 14-0 early,” said clear-cut defensive leader Kingston O’Neal, who had three and a half total tackles and a pass break-up, created a turnover and scored a key special teams touchdown later in the night. “We knew most teams wouldn’t have kept going after that, but we kept going and got it done.” 

Turning things around… 

The Raiders’ drastically retooled offense has been slow to emerge through the season’s first few weeks, and several of its early drives had the looks of those against Bleckley County in week 1 that, when free of mistakes, were missing only a confident run game that emerged sooner rather than later in this one. 

Rushing attempts represented 45 of their 51 plays, and most of their 195 total yards. 

Braylen Robinson developed the hot hand on 24 carries that led to 100 of them. Justin Blash spelled him with an additional 50 on 17.

Quarterback Duggan Malone threw only six passes, and his only completion was a 37-yard touchdown strike to Jaden Stanley, right when West Laurens needed it to cut that 22-point deficit back down to 15 on a 48-yard scoring drive. 

The Raiders’ D quickly forced a turnover, as O’Neal pried a poorly-tucked ball loose from Jerimiah Burns after his catch in the left flat, and recovered it to help Malone chip away a little further at the Dodge lead on a 32-yard field goal. 

The Indians were denied a chance to get those three back as West Laurens closed out well on a roughly 39-yard attempt by Isaac Murray that fluttered short to effectively end the first half. 

Momentum was shifting, but wouldn’t truly swing until after that 12-point deficit had some time to rest on the scoreboard. 

There was nothing doing on a couple of early third-quarter possessions for the Raiders, the first ending in a quick punt and a better-looking second progressing into the Dodge red zone but ending with Dallas Worthen’s leaping bat-down of a pass on fourth and four. 

The Indians were forced to punt on both their ensuing turns, the latter after Stephen Odom’s tackle saved the final two yards on a third down to bring out the special teams unit again. 

Noah Studstill’s fateful kick would be brought back 68 yards for a touchdown by O’Neal, who made a man miss before a heads-up block from Tripp Mascaro cleared his path on a turn down the sideline to get the rest of the way home after clearing midfield. 

“I let my blocks develop,” he said. “I know we all wanted to win it, so I took it up the sideline, and took it to the house.” 

A key Malone PAT kick was partially deflected, but made it through to turn it back to a single-score game, and the Raiders trailed by only five points on the doorstep of the fourth quarter. 

“That was a huge momentum swing,” Burdette said. 

They’d need one of the night’s lucky breaks that had overwhelmingly favored Dodge County to go their way in order to clear a major hurdle on the go-ahead drive, set up by an immediate three-and-out, and a short punt just after the start of the fourth. 

West Laurens, with Robinson carrying the ball on most of its 10 plays, used up about five minutes in reaching the Dodge 2 for a fourth and goal. 

Bray dove behind the play for an ankle tackle of Robinson that was seemingly good for a huge Indian stop, but also inadvertently popped the ball out and over the goal line, where Raider left tackle Jonathan Toney was first to notice it was free, and rolled on top of it. 

After discussion, the play was ruled a go-ahead touchdown. 

Florida-commit Aamaury Fountain leapt to take away a two-point conversion fade pass in the corner of the end zone to limit the lead to one with still five minutes to play. 

Dodge would get two more chances to respond in the remaining time, and drove quickly into West Laurens territory on both. But the Raider D would bow up for stops. 

The front line tipped a Mincey pass incomplete, and his shot for Burns was overthrown out the back of the end zone on third and fourth down to get the first. 

The Indians, sans timeouts, converted a desperate fourth down on the catch of Bray. 

But Maxx Chafin shredded a block on his way to a sack of Mincey in between spikes on first and third downs of the next series to set up a fourth and long for the game. 

Dodge spent most of the play clock on the sideline talking over the call, and rushed to the line to snap it for a line-drive throw by Mincey that landed yards away from the nearest receiver. 

“We played extraordinary defense in the second half,” Burdette said. “I’m just really proud of that. We got the stops we needed, got some turnovers.” 

‘A calamity of errors’… 

The start to the night wasn’t nearly as positive, and filled with some more of the inexperienced mistakes that held the Raiders back two weeks before against Bleckley. 

While it was still a bit of fluky start for Dodge, thanks to an onside kick recovery and at least a couple more opportune bounces that the Indians took advantage of in running out to their early lead, with touchdowns in all three phases (the first two unanswered) during the first quarter. 

“That’s a good football team, and you can’t spot a good football team 14 points off the rip,” Burdette said. “We did it, and we overcame it. But you saw some glimpses of positivity in the first half. We got some good stops in the first half, we gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown, we had a pick-six. It was just a calamity of errors, so to speak. If you can overcome that kind of stuff and win…”  

The Indians needed just two minutes to strike first, using a big play by Burns on a backside toss to open the game, and Mincey found him up the left seam on a touchdown pass several plays later. 

Despite recovering an onside attempt on the ensuing kickoff, Dodge failed on its initial opportunity to double up with a three-and-out. 

But the Indians went on top by two touchdowns on the Raiders’ second play from scrimmage as Bray jumped a swing pattern and took it about 10 yards for a pick-six. Fountain ran for two from the swinging gate to make the lead 15-0. 

The next West Laurens possession went nowhere, but the defense conjured a spark as Dodge rolled the dice on a fourth-and-short near midfield. Chafin and O’Neal made the key tackles to turn the Indians over on downs. 

Eventually, Robinson would hit a big play to get the Raiders to the edge of the end zone to set up his one-yard touchdown run on third and goal. 

But then, more mayhem. 

Fountain put together a highlight tape on an 81-yard return of the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown, making four men miss before stiff-arming a last of potential tacklers along his last 10 yards to put Dodge up 22-7. 

Another West Laurens punt, and Bray’s big gainer off the tip to set up another touchdown, had the game going a direction that forced the Raiders to buckle in. 

As their offense began to impose itself at the line of scrimmage, their defense also stepped up to reclaim the point of attack and create some confusion with a mix of coverages behind an effective three-man pass rush that seemed to eventually get Mincey rattled in the pocket. 

The Dodge senior finished the night 19-of-37 for 233 yards, with little rushing success by night’s end (the Indians had only 64 yards on 19 attempts) to balance things out. 

Somewhere around the same point both those things changed, Burdette suddenly saw his team begin playing with confidence, and a focus that refused to let itself get beat by preventable mistakes that were mostly nonexistent down the stretch. 

“We tried to figure out how to lose it to start the game off,” he said. “The second half, we played to win. I’m proud of our guys.”