Not long after Friday’s game at Greyhound Field as Jones County players slowly trickled out of the field house to greet friends and family, a replica championship belt was being carried around by the Greyhounds defensive players, signifying a late-game turnover.
In truth, an additional prop for grit and resilience would have been well-earned for the Greyhounds as they held on for a 21-14 region win against Union Grove. The victory sent JCHS into this week’s first open date with a 4-1 overall record and 3-1 in the region in front of next week’s road game at Stockbridge.
“Any time you win before you go into an open date, that’s always a really good deal,” Greyhounds head coach Mike Chastain said. “We wish we were 5-0, but we’ll take where we are right now.”
Ahead 21-7 with 11:34 to play following a Bruno Hicks touchdown, the Greyhounds turned away a stubborn Wolverines team in the end during a fourth quarter in which multiple breaks went opposite of the Greyhounds. Despite that, JCHS stood tall on defense, limiting the Wolverines to 260 offensive yards and two run plays of more than 10 yards.
“They’re resilient and play so hard for each other,” Greyhounds defensive coordinator Will Conner said. “They just believe. These kids fought so hard. They care and play hard for each other. It’s easy to come to work when there’s love like this all over the team.”
A nine-yard touchdown pass by the Wolverines cut the Greyhounds lead to 21-14 with 9:18 remaining on the end of a scoring drive with a pair of pass interference penalties being drawn by Jones County.
The Greyhounds nearly responded to put the game out of reach, but it was not to be.
After a 50-yard pass to Jaivon Solomon advanced the ball to the Union Grove eight-yard line, it helped set up an apparent touchdown to Daniel Hawk that was called back by offensive pass interference. Things snowballed after that as a field goal missed after a delay of game penalty was called as no game officials appeared to see multiple Greyhounds coaches calling timeout.
That put the game in the hands of the Jones County defense, which appeared to have backed the Wolverines up in a third and long inside their own five-yard line before a desperation hail mary was caught near field, keeping the drive going, one that would be extended on a fourth down conversion at the Wolverines 38-yard line.
That threat ended a play later with Zach Hurt coming up with an interception.
“It’s just all the hard work that we do in practice,” Hurt said. “All the work we do in practice, times like this is when it shows.”
One more defensive stand was needed after the Wolverines got the ball back with 14 seconds to go, but JR Clark clinched the win with an interception.
“We just have guys that are stepping up,” Conner said. “JR clinched the game with a pick at the end, and he hadn’t played DB all year. We had some injuries and had to have some guys step up.
The Greyhounds built an early lead with a long scoring drive, going 95 yards to lead 7-0 on a four-yard pass from quarterback Devin Edmonds to Solomon with 3:01 left in the first. That lead grew to 14-0 with 10:50 left until halftime as Zacarri Thomas, whose running style complemented that of Hicks on Friday, took a direct snap in from a yard away that was set up by a 17-yard run by none other than Hicks.
Hicks and Thomas combined to rush for 146 yards with Thomas having 94 of them. That run game helped keep the Wolverines honest in defending the pass as Edmonds was 17-of-30 for 255 yards and a touchdown.
“Both of those guys do a great job. It’s a lot like a thunder and lightning situation for us,” Chastain said. “One is more of a faster, quicker guy.
Zacarri is a bruiser but can also break away. He’s not slow by any means.
Both of them do exceptional with what we are trying do.”
