CHULA – After a season’s worth of close calls, Tiftarea Academy is now leaving no doubt. With the stage the GIAA Class AAA tournament, the Panthers won another runaway, defeating St. Andrew’s 49-27 Friday, Nov. 10, at the Panther Pit.
Winners of their last two and now 3-7-1, the Panthers head to John Milledge Academy Nov. 17 to face off in the elite eight with the No. 1 team in their classification.
Tiftarea racked up 500 yards of offense against the Lions and had a 28-7 lead at halftime.
“We’ll take it,” said head coach Erik Soliday. “I’m so proud of these kids. They kept fighting through all the adversity and found a way.”
John Jackson caught three passes on the evening. He scored touchdowns on all three, with an unofficial 145 yards receiving.
J.R. Walker threw for four touchdowns, the three to Jackson and another to Temond Marcus. He had 175 passing yards total.
On the ground, the Tiftarea bulldozer accounted for 330 yards with Lane Cole, Kaiden Richardson and Walker all getting into the act.
“The line did a good job,” said Soliday of their part in helping secure so much ground.
The Panthers’ kicker, Harrison Powell, had a good night, too. He made all three of his extra points and threw a two-point conversion pass to Eli Stevens.
It was an exercise in offense, but for those who were not there, they might be surprised that Tiftarea didn’t even have the ball in its hands until the last two minutes of the 1st quarter.
The game was St. Andrew’s for the first 10 minutes. The Lions had Tiftarea on their toes, digging out of two third-and-forever situations, and were now inside the 30.
Then something happened.
The Panthers knocked a ball loose and Brody Seagraves fell on it at the 31.
Cole picked up a quick first down then with first-and-10 at their own 42, the momentum shifted all the way to the locals.
Walker threw deep down his own sideline, where Jackson had a single man covering him and no safety help. As he’s done so often, Jackson ran under the football and darted to paydirt.
A pass for two failed, but with 40 seconds to go in the opening frame, Tiftarea was ahead 6-0. What the Lions couldn’t do in 10 minutes, the Panthers accomplished in three plays and 80 seconds.
St. Andrew’s’ second possession was much shorter: Four plays, three of them gaining nothing after a second-and-two situation. Charlie Taylor made a big stop, then Marcus’ tackle turned it over on downs.
With the offensive line opening huge gaps on every snap, Cole and Walker covered 39 yards in four plays. Walker ran it in from the 10 at 8:44. Trickery resulted on the point try, Powell dropping back to pass instead of kicking it, Stevens falling backwards to make the catch in the back of the end zone.
Tiftarea’s lone lapse of the 1st half came on the ensuing kickoff. Richard Williams gathered in the kickoff and went untouched for 88 yards. Charles Strain kicked the first of his three extra points to halve the lead to 14-7 at 8:31.
Though now a ballgame on the scoreboard, the feeling was not uneasy long. The Panthers were on fire and there was nothing St. Andrew’s could do to stop that.
Richardson finished off a nine-play drive by powering through from the 2 at 3:33. Walker ran in a conversion. He had wanted to pass, but instead scrambled into the corner.
Intentional grounding sunk St. Andrew’s next drive attempt. They punted it back at 2:24, more than enough time for the Panthers to cross the goal line again.
Soliday only needed to call one timeout and still had 42 seconds left over. Walker ran in this touchdown from the 3. A pass for two did not work.
Ridley Monk made a shoestring tackle of Williams, saving a sure touchdown from the speedster before the break, allowing the Panthers to hold on to a 28-7 lead at the buzzer.
Tiftarea had 181 rushing yards at the half on 21 carries, good for a tad over 8.5 yards per try. That would not be the tactic they used to begin the 2nd half.
The Panthers needed 14 seconds and one snap after Walker took the kickoff to the 47. St. Andrew’s jumped offsides to put the ball on the 48.
Immediately after, Walker threw to Jackson in the right flat. What was a bit of green grass turned into much more. Jackson broke an ankle tackle and sprinted into the end zone at 11:40. Powell kicked the first of his extra points and it was now 35-7.
The big lead came in handy for the rest of the game as the Lions awoke on offense.
Marcus temporarily stopped a touchdown after he ran down Strain at the 9, but Strain soon went in from the 6 at 8:57. A kick was wide.
After stuffing St. Andrew’s full with a diet of Richardson, Walker surprised the defense with a pass over the middle to Marcus. He was twisted down into the end zone, a 29-yard scoring pass at 4:49.
Rakari Harrison pulled away from a Tiftarea tackler to score on a 35-yard pass from Cullen Conner with 41 seconds left in the 3rd. Strain’s kick made it 42-20.
Tiftarea was in no hurry in the 4th quarter, bleeding almost four minutes off the clock on a seven-play drive that began at their own 31.
It was once again a Walker-to-Jackson combination for a touchdown, though in a different situation.
The Panthers had been running it well, but were knocked back to the 39 on a holding call. On fourth-and-11 in this no man’s land, Walker threw to Jackson at the sticks.
Once again, the Lions couldn’t stop Jackson and he weaved through red zone traffic for the last Tiftarea touchdown at 8:10 to go up 49-20.
St. Andrew’s needed a miracle to get back in the game. They did score, but on another slow drive. Williams scooted in from the 13 at 3:03, the ninth run of the possession. Strain’s boot was the final point of the game.
Cole had a 51-yard burst on the final drive of the night. With time running out Soliday turned the game over to the youngsters.
Excepting a dropped snap in the final seconds, the Panthers only ran one play that lost yards and it only lost a foot.
Richardson ran 16 times, gaining 108 yards and scoring a touchdown. It was 13 carries for Walker and 130 yards and a touchdown. Cole ran seven times for 96 yards.
Walker completed four of seven passing attempts. All four went for touchdowns.