The Greyhounds’ situation was a familiar one on Friday night against Stockbridge. In the closing minutes of the game, Jones County needed to drive the football downfield in order to close things out and get the win.
The Hounds on Friday did what they were unable to do a few weeks ago against Ola, this time sealing the win with a clock-consuming, go-ahead scoring drive that ended on a Jacob Skinner one-yard touchdown with 47 seconds to play, winning 46-42 as Andre Hall made the game-ending tackle near midfield.
“We treated this like a region championship so we can make it to the playoffs,” Jones County offensive lineman Garrett Green said. “We’re trying to go 1-0 every week.”
Friday’s win over Stockbridge, a state champion two years ago and the region champion last season before being forced to forfeit multiple wins, came on a night that began with excitement well before kickoff with the Hound Walk as players, coaches and other staff streamed through throngs of fans and tailgaters prior to kickoff.
“Seeing the looks on their faces on the Hound Walk, that was really cool. They’ve kept talking about that, how cool that was,” Greyhounds head coach Justin Montgomery said. “Our word of the week of was ‘one’, and we wanted to win the game as one team, one school and one community.”
With Friday’s win, Jones County (4-2) is 3-2 in the region and locked in a three-way tie for third with Stockbridge and Hampton, two teams it has now beaten head-to-head. Ola and Locust Grove are tied for first place at 4-1. With last week’s emotional win in front of a buzzing crowd in hand, Jones County aims to keep the momentum going on Friday against McDonough, who is 2-3 in the region after beating ELCA 28-7 last week.
“There’s a lot of different ways that this thing can shake out,” Montgomery said. “Every Sunday when we meet as a staff, we say, ‘Our goal is to go 1-0 every week.’ We have to put our focus on that, that’s all we can do.”
Jones County’s game-winning drive, one in which the offensive line took over and allowed the Greyhounds to lean on their running game late, began after Stockbridge led 42-40 with 6:42 to play. It was one of many instances on Friday where Jones County survived body blows by the Tigers’ big-play offense, starting with a 67-yard touchdown on flea flicker in the game’s opening minutes.
“You can’t let one big play define you. Our kids did a great job of getting back to the sideline and not losing their heads,” Montgomery said. “I was proud of how they got focused and ready to play the next play.”
All night, however, Jones County had an answer, starting on the following drive when Kaden Canty finished off a scoring drive to tie it at 7-7 with 5:38 to go in the first quarter.
Then, for the first of multiple times on Friday, Jones County’s special teams stepped up, executing a blocked punt to put JCHS up 13-7 with Zaire Jones recovering the loose ball for the touchdown.
“We knew based on our personnel that we could go after it,” Jones County defensive backs and special teams coach Reid Ford said. “Our kids worked hard all week to be able to execute it, and when the moment was there, we took advantage.”
The Greyhounds got two direct touchdowns on special teams, set up one short scoring drive, and also converted two field goals against the Tigers. The first of those field goals was from 40 yards away by Jacob Watts and pushed the Greyhounds’ lead to 16-7 with 10:49 left until halftime. The second of those kicks was from 32 yards, answering a Tigers touchdown to lead 19-14 at the end of the first half.
The special teams fireworks were not done.
JR Clark made sure of that, running back to the kickoff to begin the half 92 yards for a touchdown and 26-14 lead. It came thanks to an in-game observation by Greyhounds outside linebackers assistant Chad Freeman, who is one of Jones County’s coaches that works from the coach’s box above the field on Friday nights.
“We saw it on film,” Ford said. “Coach Freeman did a great job of setting that one up and scheming it. JR just did a good job of executing.”
Clark was not surprised at the big play. In fact, he called his shot at halftime.
“I called it. When we were in the locker room, I told them ‘I promise, I have this one.’ I kept my word,” Clark said.
Despite all the big plays, Jones County had to keep the pressure up. A pair of Tigers touchdowns sandwiched a nine-yard touchdown run by Bruno Hicks, which was set up by the Greyhounds punt coverage unit that forced an intentional grounding on a fake punt. It all added up to a 33-28 Greyhounds lead going into the final quarter.
Clark extended that edge early in the final quarter, taking a sweep 27 yards for a touchdown and a 40-28 lead with 11:21 to play. But back came the Tigers. Helped by a short field off a kick return, the Greyhounds’ lead was first cut to 40-35 before JCHS trailed 42-40 following to Stockbridge scores within 2:20 prior to the Greyhounds’ go-ahead rally.
“We talked about it before the game. We knew it was going to be an identity game for us,” Montgomery said. “We knew we’d need to establish physicality. We were able to milk the clock, even when we were down. We executed a few times on third down on that drive and it paid big dividends.”
