Late Thomasville score stuns Worth County

THOMASVILLE — Going into Friday night, Thomasville football had lost a school-record seven straight games.

Against Worth County, they broke that streak in one of the strangest ways possible.

Facing an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter, Thomasville rallied and competed a comeback with a fumble recovery in the end zone with seconds remaining after a questionable Rams play call, stunning Worth with a 25-21 win at Veterans Stadium.

The victory was the first for Zach Grage as the Bulldogs’ head coach.

“That’s a big win for us,” Grage said. “I hope it catapults us to bigger and better things. But we did not play well.”

Facing a 21-10 deficit in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs (1-2) scored with a 1-yard rushing touchdown from quarterback JT Rice, followed by a two-point conversion from a Tori Sapp run, to get the game to within three at 21-18. On Worth’s ensuing drive, the Bulldogs had evidently forced a three-and out—and a punt—at the Rams’ 32-yard line.

To the surprise of everyone in attendance, the Rams opted to try for a fourth down conversion in their own territory. Facing the critical opportunity, the Bulldogs stuffed the Rams’ attempt to bust through the line, giving them new life with 1:41 left in the game.

“My reaction was, ‘We’ve got to get the stop,’” Grage said. “It was big for our defense to make a play. Luckily it went down the way it did.”

On Thomasville’s final drive, Rice competed a 16-yard pass to Charlie Thomas to get to the 4-yard line with 22 seconds left. On the following play, Rice ran to his left, advancing the ball to the goal line. Two Rams defenders tackled him short, sending the ball flying up for grabs in the end zone. Thomasville offensive lineman Khalil Frazier then snagged the ball out of the air, ending what would end up being a comeback win.

Late in the third, it looked like the Bulldogs couldn’t catch a break. After finally getting their offense going with a 32-yard touchdown run from Rice to get the game to 10-7 with 3:48 left in the quarter, the Rams’ Akenyon Bagley took the resulting kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown.

Then the Bulldogs fumbled the next kickoff, giving the ball back to the Rams once again.

“I told my coaches to relax,” Grage said. “We can’t be yelling and screaming at the kids at that point because they feed off of that. I’m very proud of the kids and their resolve. It would have been very easy to say, ‘Here we go again.’”

The Rams (2-3) didn’t score on the drive, but they did get into the end zone again with a 43-yard run from Horace Everson with 7:30 left in the fourth.

After the opening kickoff, it looked like the Bulldogs had a good chance to score early as the very short kick was taken at their 38-yard line. From there, Thomasville drove down to the Worth County 17-yard line on seven plays. However, a few costly dropped passes stalled the drive and the Bulldogs were forced to settle for a 34-yard field goal to a take an early 3-0 lead with 9:09 to go in the first.

Late in the first quarter, the Rams broke through the Bulldogs’ defense for the first time. After Chris McDaniel broke a few tackles to get to the Thomasville 5-yard line, he finished the drive early in the second quarter with a 1-yard run into the end zone to give the Rams a 7-3 lead, which was the score going into the second half.