MCDONOUGH — In a region that is full of parity, what happens within close margins makes a gigantic difference. That fact became painfully evident on Friday for the Greyhounds at Eagles Landing, where Jones County lost 30-24 in double overtime.
In a span of a week, the Greyhounds went from having a chance to claim a share of a region title this Friday at home against Locust Grove to very likely needing a win against the first-place Wildcats to make the postseason.
JCHS goes into Friday’s regular- season finale tied with Hampton for fourth place with a 5-3 region record. While a win this week would clinch a postseason berth, a loss combined with a Hampton win over ELCA would lock Jones County out of the postseason. Losses by both Jones County and Hampton, combined with a win by Eagles Landing against Union Grove, would force a three-way tie for fourth, settling the region’s final postseason spot on a three-way tiebreaker.
But despite the Greyhounds’ region-title prospects having evaporated, there’s hardly any moping around. In fact, it’s been the exact opposite, both on Sunday afternoon and on Monday morning in spite of heavy rain.
“You have to have belief, and that’s one thing that we talked about Sunday, that we don’t lose our belief.
We train differently than other people, we got out and ran 800 yards in the rain (Monday morning),” Greyhounds head coach Justin Montgomery said. “We’re a tough bunch of guys, and building that love with our teammates is going to carry us into Friday. We’re going to need our community to show up. We want to win this thing together as one.”
The Wildcats have eight wins in a single season for just the third time in school history, and they have not made the postseason since 2018.
But a 5-5 record last year carried over into this season, where, in an offense led by Armand Parker at quarterback, the Wildcats’ only loss was 21-20 to Stockbridge. Locust Grove has won four of its eight games by two scores or less, and last week’s 18-14 win against last-place Union Grove saw the Wildcats rally in the second half for the win.
“They’re explosive and can throw the deep ball really well and can get behind people,” Montgomery said.
“So, the name of the game is to keep them in front of you.”
Jones County will go up against that confident Wildcats team Friday after bad breaks, some of their own and others beyond their control, sent Jones County to Friday’s 30-24 loss.
JCHS ran into bad breaks by way of officiating Friday in addition to its first scoring drive being delayed by more than five minutes while waiting for a nearby police vehicle’s headlights to be turned off to avoid impeding the vision of players on the field. The Greyhounds were also delayed to start the second half as a result of Eagles Landing’s senior night being held at halftime, taking at least twice as long as the normal 20 minutes allotted for halftime.
For the Greyhounds’ part, being unable to cash in on scoring chances ended up being their undoing. Jones County had the ball four times inside the opposing 20-yard line in the first half, coming away with just 10 points.
Breaks out of their control didn’t help the Greyhounds, either.
The Greyhounds gave up a short scoring drive in the second half after a penalty was not called when a fumble was caused by a player being pulled into colliding with Jones County’s punt returner, giving the Eagles the ball inside the Jones County 20-yard line. Eagles Landing’s first scoring drive followed an apparent recovered fumble that was ruled in the Eagles’ favor.
“We looked at the film on the special teams play, and they pulled our guy into the ball, essentially, and tried to get him into the return man, which should have been a penalty. And it wasn’t,” Montgomery said.
“If we get those two to go our way, that may change the game, but you can’t leave it those decisions.
You have to make the field goals when you have to make field goals, you have to punch it in when you have a chance to punch it in, and you have to keep receivers in front of you with good eye discipline.
There are some things that we need to clean up to prevent those things from being the deciding factor.”
Jones County moved the ball early on Friday, driving inside the Eagles Landing four-yard line before being stopped on fourth down.
The Eagles responded with a lengthy scoring drive, taking the ball 96 yards for a 7-0 lead. The Greyhounds responded with a pair of scores in the second quarter, first on a 33-yard Jacob Watts field goal and then on a scoring drive set up by an Isaac Elliott fumble recovery that ended on a Kaden Canty touchdown run with 5:32 to go in the first half. JCHS had a chance to add to the lead when Thad Smith snuffed out an Eagles fake punt inside the 20, but the Greyhounds could not move forward, leading 10-7 at halftime. The Greyhounds also recovered a first-half kickoff, but a missed field goal prevented JCHS from adding to its lead.
Despite the delayed start to the second half, the Greyhounds defense set the tone, forcing either a punt or turnover on the first four drives coming away from the break. But the turnover by way of a non-call on a punt return allowed Eagles Landing to knot the score thanks to having the ball inside the 20.
Jones County, which shared the run-game load between Canty and Travis Miller on Friday, leaned on the latter to wrap up the third quarter, going up 17-10 heading to the fourth quarter, putting the Greyhounds in the lead.
But a 35-yard touchdown pass with 8:55 to play by Eagles Landing tied the score, and Jones County’s best scoring chance was a 44-yard field goal with no time left set up by a blocked punt, forcing overtime.
Eagles Landing needed just two plays to lead 24-17 in overtime before the Greyhounds bounced back on a 26-yard pass from Cason Taylor to Drew Williams, forcing a second overtime. There, however, two incomplete passes and a short run, followed by a missed field goal, gave the ball to Eagles Landing, which needed a handful of plays to win, 30-24.
Now, it’s postseason or bust on Friday at Greyhound Field. “You have to fight to get in,” Montgomery said.
“We’re working on crossing every T and dotting every I to make sure we’re ready to go.”
