GREYHOUND FOOTBALL
In a game where implications at stake are a region title, miscues can loom large.
On Friday at McConnel-Talbert Stadium, a rash of uncharacteristic self-inflicted miscues proved to be detrimental for the Greyhounds, who fell behind in the first quarter and were unable to draw even thanks to those miscues, losing 43-28.
The win gave Warner Robins a region title and snapped the Greyhounds’ five-game winning streak. Regardless of Thursday’s senior night game against Union Grove, Jones County will finish second in the region and host a first-round postseason game with a likely trip to either Coffee or Ware County awaiting in the second round.
All told, JCHS was flagged for approximately 180 penalty yards, many of them being of the personal foul variety. For example, when the Demons led 17-7, the scoring drive ended on a field goal following a total of 45 penalty yards against the Greyhounds.
“We played very undisciplined football. I’ve been extremely proud of our senior class all year for playing disciplined football. On Friday night, for whatever reason, we got beside ourselves, and we did not play disciplined football like we have all year, and it hurt us,” Greyhounds head coach Mike Chastain said. “Every single drive they had, they had had 30 or 40 penalty yards given to them. On third or fourth down, we gave up penalties. It was just really bad football from a discipline standpoint.”
All of those penalty yards made things harder going up against the Demons skill position players.
Starting shortly after the coin toss, Warner Robins snatched the upper hand away from the Greyhounds. Jones County was unable to overcome the steep incline that was to come.
Special teams are apt to play big roles in game of high stakes, and it didn’t take long for them to rise to the surface on Friday. With the Greyhounds set to receive the opening kickoff, the Demons instead went for an onside kick, recovering the ball to take possession and putting early pressure on Jones County’s defense. Warner Robins used the early momentum to its advantage, going up 14-0 less than eight minutes into the game. That put Jones County into catchup mode, a task made tougher with penalties coming into play.
The Greyhounds kept pace for a good part of the first half before trailing 30-14 at the break. JCHS, despite the Demons expanding their lead to 43-14 in the third quarter, rallied back to trail by as few as 12 points in the second half, but the Demons skill position players, a pair of red zone trips with no points and a handful of other bad breaks proved to be too much.
Judging by the reaction from the Jones County side of the stadium on Friday, Greyhound fans may have a mind to debate the validity of some of Friday’s officiating calls, but one fact that cannot be debated is the role that they played. Multiple 15-yard penalties made it easier for the Demons to move the ball. Warner Robins stretched an early lead to 17-7 late in the second quarter on a 23-yard field goal, a drive that saw the Demons awarded 45 yards on penalties – two personal fouls and one defensive pass interference.
“A lot of people want to blame officials and that kind of stuff. Any game, you can find a missed call here and there, but the officials I thought for the most part did a phenomenal job and called the game how it’s supposed to be called,” Chastain said. “All of the calls that were on our guys were well-deserved.”
Penalty yards stacking up against them were not the only thing not going Jones County’s way from the start against Warner Robins. The Demons took full advantage of the opening onside kick. After two quick screens by quarterback Judd Anderson, who transferred to Warner Robins from Jones County two games into the season, a 26-yard run by Cam Flowers less than a minute into the game put the Demons ahead 7-0.
After being held to a three and out, the Greyhounds would yield a 95-yard scoring drive capped by a 28-yard touchdown pass by Anderson, who was razzed throughout the game by the JCHS student section that had traveled to Warner Robins. The Greyhounds got going after that. Quarterback Devin Edmonds, who was 27-of-40 for 345 yards, went deep for one of his three touchdowns, finding a wide open Zion Ragins on an 80-yard score with 5:19 left in the first quarter.
Edmonds, who kept Warner Robins’ defense honest by way of 66 rushing yards, drew JCHS with three points seven seconds into the second when he found Tyler Stewart in the back of the end zone for a six-yard score.
The Demons hit right back, getting going on a scoring drive that ended on a direct snap touchdown by Rasean Dinkins from the one-yard line. The Greyhounds defense – led by Ched Smith’s 12 tackles and 10 by DJ Ingram and Chandler Harris – stopped a Demons drive at the Greyhounds 30. Jones County’s shot at momentum would end, however, with a deep pass by Edmonds being intercepted near the end zone with 1:17 to go until halftime, but that was still enough time for Dinkins to score from 11 yards away with 15 seconds to go until halftime to put Warner Robins up 30-14.
Despite a 53-yard pass to Cam Flowers and eight-yard run by Terry Wright to put WRHS up 43-14 in the third, Jones County took shots at a comeback, closing to 43-21 with 4:37 left in the third in a six-yard burst up the middle by Jamarion Parker.
With Greyhound students chanting, “It’s not over,” Jones County got an onside kick, but a first down shortly after was called back by a holding penalty, and an incompletion and sack would end hopes of getting into the end zone for the Greyhounds, who also had a fourth-quarter drive end at the Warner Robins five.
Edmonds found Ragins for a touchdown in the final minute, giving Ragins nine catches for 143 yards.
“The good thing is our guys have shown in the past that we’ll learn from these mistakes, move forward and it’ll help us down the road,” Chastain said. “If history repeats itself, our guys will respond, learn from their mistakes and good things will happen.”
