McDONOUGH — Purveyors of blood pressure medication would have likely found plenty of takers from the Jones County side of the field and the grandstands on Friday night at McDonough High School.
A week after an emotional win against Stockbridge, the Greyhounds found themselves in a game that was every bit of a rock fight against the Warhawks, trailing by two touchdowns early before battling back to equalize things prior to winning 27-24 in overtime on a five-yard run by Kaden Canty.
“We knew if we could get into overtime, we had a good chance just because of how we practice and the way we train,” Jones County head coach Justin Montgomery said.
Adversity revealed itself in multiple ways on the road for the Greyhounds on Friday. In the end, however, Jones County found ways to overcome it.
Whether it was the way the game began, self-inflicted miscues, penalties or just bad breaks, they all ended up being barriers that Jones County had to overcome.
“Just find a way to win and overcome adversity, that’s the name of the game,” Greyhounds head coach Justin Montgomery said. “If you’re going to be a great football team, you have to learn how to overcome adversity. To be able to keep your composure and not lose your head, that’s a good sign of maturity. I think we’re doing that, and that’s something we’ll continue to progress into.
“We’ll be in some dogfights as you go toward the playoffs.
You have to make sure that you know how to stay focused and execute at a high level when the pressure is on.”
The reward for all of that fighting back? JCHS (5-2 overall, 4-2 in region) is very much in position to at the least claim a share of a region title with wins in each of its final games of the regular season, starting this Friday at home against ELCA.
“We’ve been talking about it since Ola. Every Friday night is a region championship for us. We’re not really able to go into any game and not know that the championship is on the line. If you lose, you lose it.
If you win, you stay alive for it,” Montgomery said. “That’s a good motivator for us. We talk about, when you are climbing the mountain, you don’t look at the top of the mountain. You just look at the next step of where your hand and foot have to go. You just focus on the process and put everything you have into that.”
Jones County’s bout with adversity began early on Friday with two Warhawks scores within 20 seconds, putting the Greyhounds behind 14-0 with 7:19 left in the first quarter. It was a start that, in a way, was not a surprise coming off a big win a week earlier.
“I knew we had a lot back-slapping and a lot of ‘hey, good job’ and attaboys. I knew our guys, we just were not ready for that, honestly,” Montgomery said. “I told them, ‘I don’t feel real good about our week of preparation, guys.’ I told them, ‘I love you guys, but I just don’t feel good about where we are right now.’ I think that showed in the first couple of series of the game and after that.
“We kind of got our minds back right and ready to go.”
McDonough found success with the running of AJ Tillman, whose execution via the counter play made it first a 7-0 lead from 40 yards away after a JCHS fake punt was snuffed out. Then, after the following Greyhounds drive ended quickly on a Cason Taylor interception, Tillman took the next play 20 yards.
Just like that, Jones County was two touchdowns behind.
“They started running tackle-power. We call it ‘dart.’ We had not seen a ton of that. A lot of people that run counter on us, they have started running that,” Montgomery said. “We just had to go back and work on how to fit into that. (Tillman) was really elusive, a quick running back, so we had to detail on how to tackle him. We adjusted to it, but it did take us a little bit.”
Slowly and surely, the Greyhounds settled in, starting by answering the two-score disadvantage with an 80-yard drive, ending on an eight-yard run by Bruno Hicks, cutting the McDonough lead to 14-6 late in the first quarter.
Hicks was part of a balanced effort on a night in which he, Canty, and Travis Miller shared the load, even with the latter of the two stepping up after Hicks left the game with an injury. Canty and Miller combined for 118 rushing yards.
“Both of those guys, they saw Bruno go down, ran really hard and made something out of nothing a lot of times,” Montgomery said.
After gifting the Warhawks points via field position in the first quarter, Jones County turned the tables in the second. After jumping on a muffed snap to the punter inside the opposing 20, JR Clark’s five-yard catch reduced the McDonough lead to 14-13 as the Greyhounds defense was able to stem the early rushing success of the Warhawks.
McDonough did get its run game going again midway through the third, setting up a short touchdown pass to lead 21-13 with 7:49 to go in the quarter.
“(McDonough) did a good job, that was a testament to them. They schemed us up and showed some things they had not shown before,” Montgomery said. “Our coaches did a good job of figuring out what we had to do to stop them on defense. I was proud of how everybody came tougher and found a way to get the win.”
But for the second week in a row, Jones County had a special teams answer. McDonough’s kicker to that point had boomed every kickoff into the end zone for a touchback, but letting one land a yard or two shy of the end line ended up being costly. Junior Hollway took the kickoff, found a crease, and 98 yards later had scored a touchdown.
“I saw it. I was like, ‘I’ve got to take this to the crib,” Holloway said. “I always have confidence in myself. When I saw a hole open, I knew I had a chance.”
Taylor found Drew Williams for the two-point conversion, tying the game up at 21-21 with 7:35 to play in the third.
The Greyhounds bailed themselves out shortly after. Following a fumble inside their own 30, McDonough’s scoring chance was short-lived. One play later, an inside screen was intercepted by Thad Smith. It was not the last stand that would be made by the Greyhounds, who also halted a fourthquarter McDonough drive near midfield. That helped JCHS get in position to win in the final quarter, where a Nate Vaughn touchdown was called back by a penalty, and a long field goal by Jacob Waters missed as time ran out, sending things to overtime.
“We moved the ball, but we just dealt with adversity all night,” Greyhounds offensive coordinator Bradley Honeycutt said. “These kids have grown up so much. To be on the winning side like this, you really see how these kids have grown.”
There was little doubt from the Greyhounds on their strategy.
“We didn’t want to turn it over, and we knew we could kick a field goal. We have a really good field goal kicker,” Honeycutt said. “Our decision there was to run it in.”
Jones County was not discouraged going into the extra period, even with one of its three primary running backs, Hicks, injured. It showed quickly with the game being extended. After McDonough’s first overtime possession ended on a field goal, an 11-yard run by Miller advanced the ball to the five, where Canty powered in for the game-winning score.
“We were ready to run the ball and get it in there and score,” Canty said.
