GREYHOUND FOOTBALL
MCDONOUGH - Jones County made an offensive living in between the tackles on Thursday night at Eagles Landing. And that life was a good one.
Leaning heavily on the ground game, the Greyhounds improved to 2-0 in the region and 4-2 overall in a 42-19 win against the Golden Eagles in a contest that like many others statewide was moved to a different day due to concerns about potential weather from Hurricane Ian.
“It really wasn’t that big of an adjustment being that everyone lost an extra day and we had an off week. We focus on one team at a time and were focused on Eagles Landing during the off week,” Jones County head coach Mike Chastain said. “To be honest, it probably helped us before because it gave us a day off on Friday to get a longer weekend to rest and for our guys dealing with injuries.”
Jones County did plenty of storming in the trenches, piling up 291 rushing yards as Omarion Tucker ran wild to the tune of 150 yards on 19 carries, scoring five touchdowns. Eagles Landing didn’t have much of an answer for Drew Jones, either, as he was able to help supplement the ground game in rushing for 105 yards.
“We felt like they were a young football team. They have a lot of freshmen and sophomores, and we have a veteran team that we feel like is physically stronger than them,” Chastain said. “From watching film, we felt like team had had success running against them. I know we like to throw the ball, but we also like to take advantage of what people give us.”
Off to a 2-0 start in region play, the Greyhounds host Ola
• 7:30p.m.,Friday
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• SeriesHistory:JonesCountyleads8-0
• PreviousMeeting:JonesCountywon48-42in2021 next week. A win there would set up a battle of region unbeatens Oct. 14 at Dutchtown. The Bulldogs, who beat Union Grove last week, are 2-0 in the region, and a win over the Greyhounds would give them wins over JCHS and Warner Robins, giving them the upper hand to win the region. Jones County carries a 17-game win streak against region opponents into Friday’s game.
“I think I read in Georgia High School Football Daily that we have one of the top region win streaks. We’re 2-0, and that’s big,” Chastain said. “These region games are very important, and we have to continue to win.”
Speaking of Warner Robins, the Demons got back on track Friday in a 38-0 win against Ola. That’s not to say that the Greyhounds are in any way taking the Mustangs lightly.
“Ola has been a tough opponent for us over the past few years. They have a new coach this year and are playing some younger guys but are extremely big and talented,” Chastain said.
Thanks to Jones County’s rushing prowess, it built off an early 7-0 lead on Friday that came when Devin Edmonds, who got the start at quarterback for the second game in a row, found Ed Chester wide open on a deep slant off a 62-yard touchdown just 2:07 into the game. On a night where the ground game was king for the Greyhounds, the ball was seldom passed. Edmonds was 5-of-7 for 128 yards with Judd Anderson being in during the second half for multiple drives before Edmonds would re-enter for a late scoring possession to put the game away after the Greyhounds lead was cut to two touchdowns.
The Golden Eagles tested the Greyhounds secondary, hurling the ball deep to try and cash in. That resulted in a touchdown to tie the score 7-7 after a quarter.
That’s when the Greyhounds took control, going up on runs of 12 and 11 yards from Tucker to lead 21-7. Then, after a run by Jones gashed the Eagles Landing defense, Tucker took his turn going up the middle, making it 28-7 from three yards away with 2:52 left until halftime.
The Greyhounds kept the momentum in the second half to begin with, with Jones starring defensively on the first Golden Eagles drive to stop the first possession with a sack. That helped set JCHS up with good field position, and the result was touchdown number four of the night for Tucker, a score that the Greyhounds followed up defensively by stopping an Eagles Landing drive by forcing an incomplete pass in the end zone.
But helped by ongoing roughing the passer penalties, Eagles Landing got back in it, trailing 35-19 with 10:34 to play.
That’s when Edmonds, who with 2:58 to go in the third was replaced by Anderson, who re-entered on a drive where the running of Tucker got him into the end zone for a fifth time from 10 yards away.
