Crisp County overpowers Dougherty High

ALBANY — While it looked as though defense would keep the Dougherty high Trojans in the game against Crisp County, they were ultimately unable to stop the big plays as the Cougars cruised to a 42-6 win at Hugh Mills Stadium Thursday night.

Crisp County (9-0, 3-0 Region 1-AAA) will meet Worth County next Friday night at Milt Miller Field with the region championship on the line.

Dougherty (2-7, 1-2) can secure the region’s fourth and final seed as long as Monroe loses its final two games against Worth County and Cook. The Trojans would be the fourth seed by virtue of their 21-14 head-to-head victory over Monroe earlier this month.

Crisp County received the ball first and marched up the field after three big run plays. The Trojans were able to force and recover a fumble and had momentum on their side for a brief instance. The offense was unable to turn the possession into points and they would end up punting the ball.

The Cougar offense got rolling from there. TJ Ming made a catch, shook off at least four Trojan defenders and scored from 46 yards for the first touchdown of the night. After the successful point after, Crisp led 7-0 with 6:48 left in the first quarter.

The Trojans had trouble containing running back Jammie Robinson in the first half. In addition to several big runs, Robinson also put points on the board after a 43-yard touchdown run to help make it a 14-0 game with 8:18 left in the half.

The defense found the end zone on the night as well for the Cougars after Brandon Dowdell’s back-to-back interceptions. His first was a pick six from about 35 yards out and his second was just shy of a score as he returned it about 66 yards to the Dougherty 14.

Robinson finished the job, taking it the remaining 14 yards for a touchdown. The PAT made it a 28-0 game with 2:24 left in the half.

Dougherty head coach Cory Joyner said the Goliath-sized opponent was a bit too much for his team to handle.

“They kinda overpowered us a little bit,” he said. “They’ve got some nice size, nice big guys with experience, we’re still kind of young up front, but that’s a good football team. That’s why they’re number one, number two in the state.”

With under a minute left to play, Crisp County got the ball back one last time and made the most of it, moving into Trojan territory and setting up a 22-yard Bailey Barfield quarterback keeper for the score. The Cougars nailed the PAT and went into the halftime break with a commanding 35-0 lead.

The Trojans were picked off in their first possession of the second half, but would finally put together a scoring drive in the fourth quarter. Dreshon Alston made a huge catch to put the Trojans at the Cougar four-yard line. After enduring a sack, Quaddarion Shedrick powered it in from about 10 yards out to give Dougherty their first touchdown of the night. The 2-point conversion was no good and the Cougars still held a 35-6 lead.

Crisp County answered with a scoring drive that ended with a 15-yard quarterback keeper to put the game on ice at 42-6 with 5:47 left in the game.

Joyner said he’s still very pleased with where the program is at this point.

“I set a five-year plan and here we’re on it,” he said. “I said in five years we’ll make it to the playoffs. I said in five years we’ll be competing for a city championship and we did. We beat Albany and we beat Monroe, unfortunately we didn’t beat Westover, but we’re moving in a positive direction.”