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By Ron Seibel

SYLVESTER — For all of the mistakes and miscues Worth County had in its season opener Friday against Thomas County Central, head coach Ben Simmons couldn’t be completely disappointed.

Sure, there were a bunch of mistakes. Penalty flags were plenty.

But in his first game as head coach of the Rams, Simmons led a Worth County team that fought through some adversity and held its own into the fourth quarter against a ranked team two classifications higher.

Thomas County Central, ranked 10th in GHSA Class 5A, pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat Worth County 30-13. But, despite getting hit up for 112 yards on 17 penalties and a couple of other miscues, the Rams, a vote-getter in Class 3A, kept things competitive.

“It’s a football game, and you always prepare to do right and to do great things, and our guys did at times,” Simmons said. “But at times, we let our foot down, and they bit us. Against a quality opponent like TCC, you can’t do that.”

The game could have turned into a blowout quickly. Quintavius Cooksey caught a Deondre Sullivan pass on Thomas County Central’s first offensive play and broke open for a 64-yard touchdown. But Worth County’s defense bounced back, making up for that play when Jaiven Bean recovered a fumble early in the second quarter and returned it 55 yards to tie the game.

Even with Thomas County Central scoring two touchdowns late in the second quarter to take a 20-7 lead into halftime, there was a sense that Worth County wasn’t completely out of it. The Rams’ defense held the Yellow Jackets in check through the third quarter, and a 35-yard screen pass from Lance Eldridge to Montavious Buford made it a 20-13 game heading into the fourth quarter.

The penalties, however, got in the way of Worth County’s bid to challenge Thomas County Central.

Most of Worth County’s penalties in the second half were 5-yarders: offside, false start, illegal man downfield. But those calls, especially a couple of illegal man downfield calls, nullified some big gains for the Rams’ offense.

“We’ve got to clean that up.” Simmons said. “That just killed us, all of those things. Offsides, illegal man downfield, these are things that we stress in practice. … We’ll make sure it’s right for next week.”

Sullivan, who finished with two rushing touchdowns to go along with his early scoring pass, ran the ball into the end zone from 15 yards out with 9:58 to go to put Thomas County Central up 27-13. Place-kicker Huntley Rogers iced it with a 31-yard field goal with 3:12 remaining.

Dashon Lewis had the Yellow Jackets’ other touchdown.

“We’re real, real young,” Thomas County Central head coach Bill Shaver said. “On defense, we had one returning starter out there playing. … I thought our defense battled out there pretty good. Offensively, we only have three back, too. We’re very young, but we made some steps from last week’s scrimmage.”

Thomas County Central meets Thomasville next Friday, while Worth County hosts Turner County.