Dougherty breezes past Columbus, 48-0

ALBANY — For a late-September football game, Thursday night at Hugh Mills Stadium felt almost too easy.

The temperature was comfortable. A light breeze drifted through the stadium. There wasn’t much of a crowd on either side, and there certainly wasn’t much traffic to fight on the way in.

Then Dougherty made the football look easy, too.

Quarterback Micah Joyner threw four touchdown passes in the first half, three of them to senior David Burgess, and senior safety Eric Spann returned an interception 55 yards for another score as the Trojans overwhelmed Columbus 48-0 in a Region 1-AAA game.

By halftime, it was 35-0.

By then, about the only Dougherty player who might have worked up much of a sweat was Burgess.

The senior receiver caught two touchdown passes from Joyner in the first quarter as Dougherty quickly grabbed a 14-0 lead. Early in the second, Joyner spotted sophomore Jherel Gibson behind the Columbus secondary and dropped the ball to him for a 65-yard touchdown.

That made it 21-0, and the Trojans weren’t finished.

In fact, Spann almost had his touchdown one play before he actually got it.

With Columbus forced to the air, Spann and two Dougherty teammates converged on a pass that seemed destined to be intercepted. Instead, the three Trojans got in each other’s way and knocked the ball harmlessly to the turf.

No problem.

On the very next snap, Spann — a Georgia Southern commit — stepped in front of another pass, secured this one and raced 55 yards the other way for a touchdown.

Just like that, it was 28-0.

Columbus did have some success running the football and eventually pushed into Dougherty territory, but a penalty stalled the drive and brought out senior kicker Isaiah Virgil for an unusual second long-distance field-goal try of the night.

Virgil had come up just short on a 55-yard attempt earlier. This one was from 56.

Same result.

Dougherty took possession at its own 20, and it didn’t stay there long.

Joyner flipped a short pass to Burgess, who broke toward the sideline, found open grass and was gone. Eighty yards later, Burgess had his third touchdown reception of the half and Dougherty had a 35-0 lead.

For a team that spent the previous week thinking about its first loss of the season, it was quite a response.

Crisp County handed Dougherty its first setback last Friday, beating the Trojans 35-14 in Cordele. Six days later, Dougherty looked nothing like a team still dwelling on it.

The Trojans scored through the air. They scored on defense. And after halftime, with the outcome essentially settled, they went to the ground.

Ja’Darrion Simmons moved the chains on a couple of carries before Zion Johnson broke loose and carried the ball to the Columbus 13-yard line. On the next play, Simmons finished the drive with a touchdown run.

With a running clock in the fourth quarter, Dougherty coach Uyl Joyner began getting some of his younger players onto the field. Sophomore wide receiver Detavious Poole took over at quarterback and, after the Trojans worked the ball downfield on the ground, showed he could throw it, too.

Poole lofted a pass downfield for a 40-yard touchdown, providing the final points of an evening when just about everything went Dougherty’s way.

The Trojans improved to 4-1 overall and 3-0 in region play, keeping themselves unbeaten in the games that will ultimately determine their postseason position.

The road gets considerably more interesting next week.

Dougherty travels to Columbus to face Shaw, which is 3-2 and already has some familiarity with teams from Albany. The Raiders lost 26-14 to Westover last week at Hugh Mills Stadium.

Thursday night, though, belonged to the Trojans.

Perfect weather. An empty road. A 35-point halftime lead.

And, for Dougherty, a bounce-back victory that looked every bit as comfortable as the night itself.