It Was A Dog Fight At Macon Co.

It was a dog fight between the Bulldogs of Toombs County High School and the Bulldogs of Macon County High School last Friday night in Montezuma. It came down to the final two minutes of the game with Julian Marin-Vital coming through with his leg to give Toombs the win.

Macon came into the game as the #3 ranked team in Single A and were averaging nearly 50 points a game.

TCHS had to punt on their first series of the game after getting the ball to kick things off. A good kick by Marin-Vital put Macon at their 21-yard line.

The Toombs defense, which did a great job all night on the #3 ranked team, stopped them on their opening drive and forced a punt. Toombs took over at their 46-yard line with good field position.

DJ Mincey got a good run across midfield, and then quarterback Chandler Lynn completed a pass to Brannon Usher all the way to the 16-yard line. But on the next play TCHS fumbled the ball with Macon recovering it to end the threat.

Both defenses played well in the first half as neither team had scored with just three minutes to go in the first half of the game.

Toombs took the ball with 2:30 left in the half and began to work the ball down the field. Usher and Mincey both had big runs as they crossed midfield and worked it to the 30. With 1:25 left in the first half TCHS took a timeout. Coming out of that Lynn hit Tyler Heath for a 28-yard touchdown pass with 1:17 left in the half. Marin-Vital added the extra point to put TCHS continued from page

up 7-0. Macon answered, though, and took the ball and quickly went down the field and scored with just 19 seconds left in the half on an 18-yard touchdown pass. They made the PAT to tie the game at 7-7 heading to halftime. In the third quarter of the game things began to get chippy as Macon was getting frustrated that they couldn't get anything going against the TCHS defense. Toombs got big play all night from Usher, Tank Morris, Wil Watts, Robert Kent and Cameron Braddock, who combined for 11 tackles for a loss, 2 sacks, and 5 hurries. As things got heated, Macon laid a cheap shot on Watts, who was down on the ground for a minute or two and had to be attended to. Just after that Macon went for a pass over the middle and Lynn laid a huge, but clean, hit on the receiver separating him from the football. Late in the third quarter Toombs went back on top as they pushed the ball down the field. They got very good field position after the defense stopped Macon with four minutes to go in the third. Runs from Mincey, Lynn and Usher got the ball down inside the 5-yard line. TCHS went to what they call the Wild Dawg setup, with Mincey at quarterback. He followed big blocks from Usher and the offensive line and three consecutive plays and punched the ball into the end zone for a Toombs touchdown. Marin-Vital added the extra point to put Toombs up 14-7 with 55 seconds to play in the third quarter.

Early in the fourth quarter Macon got a big run for a score from 48 yards out with 9:05 left in the game. They added the extra point to tie it up at 14-14.

The teams exchanged punts on their next possessions, but when Toombs got the ball back next, they put a drive together. They got all the way to the Macon 30-yard line, but were stopped there and faced a fourth-and-nine. A penalty against Macon moved it five yards closer and Toombs called on Marin-Vital with just 2:26 left in the game to attempt a 42-yard field goal.

Marin-Vital came in and drilled the kick to put TCHS on top 17-14.

The TCHS defense got two huge plays from Morris on the Macon final drive, and with 1:48 left, Macon fumbled the ball deep in Macon territory. Toombs tried to get it in for another score, but turned the ball over on downs with just 15 seconds to go at the Macon 6-yard line.

Macon hit a couple of long pass plays as they moved out to the 32-yard line. They completed a pass on the final play of the game and got all the way to the TCHS 35-yard line, but the defense pushed the receiver out of bounds to preserve the win, 17-14.

It was a big win for Toombs, knocking off the highly ranked Macon team. Toombs is now 4-1 on the year. They will be off this week and will begin Region play next week when they host Bacon County.