Worth County rebounds to beat Westover

SYLVESTER — With two games remaining in subregion play, both Worth County and Westover had postseason aspirations at Milt Miller Field Friday night. It was also Worth County’s homecoming.

If head coach Octavia Jones and his Patriots could find a way to knock off Worth County, Dougherty, and Americus-Sumter in their remaining subregion games, Westover would make the state playoffs.

Try as they might, the Patriots’ good luck would run out in Sylvester as the Rams pounded their way to a 51-31 victory, rebounding from last week’s loss at Bainbridge.

“Our guys played hard,” Worth head coach Jason Tone said. “We got a lot of kinks to work out defensively. They’re not as happy with their performance tonight, but it’s a good team win. I thought they played hard all game.”

While William Green has begun to make a name of himself after the departure of current Georgia defensive tackle Trent Thompson, the Patriot defensive line was overmatched against the guard-pulling and dive-blocking Worth County power-option attack.

“Our offensive line did a good job staying low and running their feet,” Tone said. “We try to misdirect and trick more than anything, I thought the guys did a great job.”

Though the Rams’ offensive line was powerful enough, the Patriots couldn’t capitalize on turnovers to begin the game, failing to recover three fumbles, allowing the Rams to jump out to a 23-7 lead.

“That just comes from us not having enough people around the ball,” Jones said of the three missed opportunities to force turnovers. “Defensively, we teach our guys to swarm to the ball … if we have more guys around the ball than they do, good things will happen. We didn’t have enough people around to get those fumbles.”

Senior tailback Justin Hope racked up 116 yards on just eight carries in the first half alone, while Dontavious Buford added 81 yards on six carries before the break.

The Patriots would score on their first possession of the second half thanks to a 61-yard run by quarterback Emory McKenzie, pulling them within eight points. Westover’s defense forced a stop on the subsequent possession, however senior linebacker Jamill Curry took a direct snap out of the punt formation and went for 26 yards, setting up a two-yard plunge by Buford.

Senior safety Eric Burrows grabbed an interception on Westover’s next possession, and for all intents and purposes, the rout was on.

McKenzie just wouldn’t go away quietly. After McDaniel and Buford scored, the Pats’ quarterback engineered a 66-yard drive, capped with another short run and 2-point conversion — and it was once again a two-score game with less than nine minutes in regulation.

The Patriots forced a third-and-long and were poised to force a punt, yet jumped offsides. Two plays later, Buford scored again to stretch the margin to 21. McDaniel connected with senior tight end Jarvis Reid on a 32-yard touchdown pass on the next possession but there just wasn’t enough time to make a game of it.

“Emory is our leader,” Jones said. “No doubt about it, he’s our leader. Week in and week out, he always takes the team on his shoulders. We’re going to go where he takes us. We’ve got to get everybody to step up and do their jobs so that he can get a little help.”

Buford, Hope, and McDaniel would finish with 221, 140, and 90 yards respectively. Hope scored three touchdowns, while Buford and McDaniel added two scores each.

The Rams (4-3, 3-1 Region 1-AAAA ‘B’) travel to Americus to face Americus-Sumter next Friday, while (1-5, 1-1) Westover (1-5, 1-1), which still has a slim chance at the postseason, plays host to Dougherty.

“If we win the next one, our hopes are still alive,” Jones said. “I tell them it’s not over until the fat lady sings. We’ve just got to win the next one and let the chips fall where they may.”