Vidalia Whips Falcons On Homecoming

On a night when a beautiful Jadhari Jones was crowned as Vidalia High School’s Homecoming Queen of 2021, the Vidalia Indians football team got themselves right back into the Region 2-AA race with a 50-21 win over East Laurens.

And if there was a Homecoming Queen, the King of the Gridiron at Vidalia’s Homecoming was definitely Indian QB Bryce Davis.

Davis was involved in every single one of Vidalia’s seven TD’s, either throwing or running for the score. For the record, the Indians’ senior leader ran for four TD’s and threw for three others.

The win put the Indians into a tie for third place in Region 2-AA with Toombs County, the archrival they are battling in Lyons this week. Swainsboro and Jeff Davis are both unbeaten in the region, while both Bacon County and East Laurens are winless.

While the Indians and Bulldogs are meeting in Lyons, the Jeff Davis Yellow Jackets and the Swainsboro Tigers will be playing in Hazlehurst. This weekend’s games will go a long way toward determining the 2-AA champion and playoff seedings.

Vidalia got on the board first as Davis faded back and found Jordan Powell running wide open in the Falcon secondary on a 41-yard scoring pass with 4:51 left in the first quarter. Davis got the call as the Indians opted to go for a 2-point conversion that continued from page

made the score 8-0. The Indians got on the board again on their next possession, this time traveling mostly by ground. Davis broke the end zone plane from 3 yards out with 11:54 left in the first half. Tate Mc-Daniel’s first PAT of the night made it 15-0. East Laurens was able to get their first score of the night before the half ended when scrambling QB Kash Bryant found Traveon Richardson, who put some good moves on Indian defenders and raced into the end zone on a 60-yard scoring play.

The Indians threatened at the end of the half, but Tate McDaniel’s 36-yard field goal attempt hooked a little left of the goal post to keep the score at 15-7. Vidalia’s freshman running back , A.J.McLendon, lit the spark that got the Indian offense moving in the second half, going off tackle for 47 yards and almost outran the pursuit to the end zone before being caught on the 2-yard line. Davis scored his second TD a play later and the Indians led 22-7 after Mc-Daniel’s PAT.

The pesky Falcons wouldn’t go away though, and Eli Downing scored a controversial TD when it looked like he may have fumbled into the end zone. The extra point was good to cut Vidalia’s lead to 8.

The Indians answered quickly. Antonio Barron set up the next touchdown when he took the Falcon kickoff and ran it back 86 yards before being pushed out of bounds at the 4-yard line. Davis got his third rushing TD when he scored from the 2-yard Lin on second down. McDaniel’s PAT made it 29-14. The Falcons still wouldn’t go away; and they cut the lead to 29-21 when the scrambling Bryant passed to Zaylen Boston for 75 yards and the TD. The extra point again cut Vidalia’s lead to 8.

There was simply too much Davis for the Falcons to catch up though. Davis got his fourth running TD with 11:09 left to up Vidalia’s lead to 3621 after McDaniel’s extra point. Davis threw two more fourth quarter TD passes to end the scoring. Both were to sophomore receivers.

He hit Jacaree Washington for 30 yards on the first one, and then to Antonio Barron for 40 yards and a TD on the second one. The Indians improved to 5-2 overall; but more importantly are now 1-1 in Region 2-AA play.

Vidalia QB Bryce Davis cuts inside of a block by one of his teammates in Friday’s 50-21 win over East Laurens at Buck Cravey Field.Photo by John W. Conner