Canes Ground the Falcons 41-14; Prepare for First Region Game

A beautiful night for football in the piney woods of southeast Georgia gave way to the Monticello Hurricanes clipping the wings of the East Laurens Falcons 41-14, on their homecoming nonetheless.

The tone for the game was set early by the Hurricanes as continuous pressure by the defense, combined with undisciplined play on part of the Falcons’ offense led to the first score of the game for the Canes. After picking up a first down on a recovery of their own fumble, the Falcons were assessed their first (of 13) penalty of the game.

After a 13-yard gain made it a manageable down and distance, the Hurricanes struck. East Laurens completed a pass, and as the receiver was going towards the ground in the clutches of a Garrett Lynch tackle, the ball popped out and headed toward the turf. An ever alert Jacarian Grier, who had just been in the backfield applying pressure on the quarterback and was coming back across the field to assist on the tackle, picked up the freshly fumbled pigskin and raced 49-yards down the sideline with Head Coach Ashley Henderson not too far behind in his excitement!

The tone had been set, and the Hurricanes were primed to wipe out the Falcons. On the ensuing possession, the Falcons again were penalized on the first play, and after gaining a first down were forced to punt. The Canes closed out the first quarter with a 12-play, 78-yard drive that culminated in a Brandon Ridley 1-yard run, and chewed almost six minutes off the clock. Travis Teran was stopped short on the two-point conversion, but the score was now 12-0 Monticello.

After a short Falcon punt from their own four-yard line at the beginning of the second quarter that placed the Hurricanes in favorable field position, a defensive pass interference penalty quickly moved the ball inside the red zone to the 17. After a false start penalty was assessed against the Canes, Hunter Hays connected with Kaidon Whidby for a 14-yard pass play that set the them at the 8-yard line. Hays gained two for the first down conversion, and after an incompletion, took it in himself for the final six yards of the drive, and another six points.

They used a little “trickeration” on the point after attempt, with Chevy Sands connecting with wide open long snapper Austin Young for the two-point conversion.

After sending East Laurens backwards (they finished with -13 rushing yards), the Hurricanes took over after another Falcon punt. Once again, another penalty, this time offsetting fouls, brought back what would have been a back breaking Hurricane touchdown run on the first play of the drive.

Whidby gained a first down after a 14-yard run, Sands followed with a six-yard pickup to begin the drive. On second and six from the East Laurens 43 yard-line, Sands forced an ill-advised pass to a well-covered Demonte Greene. The pass was intercepted and returned to the Hurricane 23. This was the only turnover for the evening in an otherwise clean game for the Canes. After going backwards on the ground again, the Falcons found pay dirt in the form of an Eli Downing touchdown reception, good for 27-yards. The point after from Connor Tanner was good, and the Hurricane lead was now 20-7.

The rest of the first half was back and forth, with big plays made by Jalen Stewart on a couple of big first down runs, and a big sack by the combination of Randy Williams and Cedrion Stone to keep the Falcons out of the end zone, and the Canes up 20-7 going into the half.

The Hurricanes received the second half kickoff and promptly drove downfield, with the big play being an explosive 41-yard run by Stewart to the Falcon six-yard line. They were unable to take advantage of the scoring opportunity, and turned the ball over on downs after a Hays fourth down incompletion.

The Falcons once again went in reverse, and punted from their own end zone after the Hurricanes forced a three-and-out. The first play of the ensuing drive Hays found Whidby going up the sideline for a big 21-yard gain to the Falcon 31. Stewart and Tyler Banks gained another first down on the ground, and Hays completed a pass to Grier which brought up fourth and one at the ten-yard line.

Whidby came into the backfield in the heavy formation, and followed the blocks of Stone, Ridley, and Grier to the end zone. Teran’s extra point increased the lead to 27-7 with 1:03 left in the third quarter. East Laurens was in a giving mood now, and on their next possession fumbled back to the Hurricanes on a botched handoff, which was recovered by Michael Smith.

In the fourth quarter, the Canes put the finishing touches on a well-played game. They took advantage of the short field East Laurens had provided after the fumble and drove 37-yards with Stewart punching it in with an emphatic burst from the 1-yard line. Teran’s successful point after made it 34-7 Monticello.

East Laurens came back with a quick touchdown pass of 59-yards to close the gap, but a quick two play drive by the Canes and running back Banks’ 42-yard touchdown run gave the final margin of 41-14. The Hurricanes forced one more three-and-out, then ran out the last 5:18 of the game running behind the offensive line of Jakob Mathis, Ty’Mir Thorton, Owen Diaz, Levi Shaw, and Michael Smith.

The greatest play in football closed out the game for the Hurricanes—the victory knee by Hays.

“Tonight was a good night. This was a big win on the road, and it’s great to get some momentum going into region play,” said Coach Henderson. “I’m super happy for our kids and coaches, we’re getting better and better. The kids have worked their tails off and are now finding out how to win games-what it takes-then putting a team away when the opportunity presents itself. We are playing with better discipline not getting caught up trash talk and all the extra-curricular (after the whistle). We’ve said for a while the correct way to spell fun is W I N.”

“Defensively, Coach Ragan and crew put together a great plan and dominated the ball game. Michael Smith and Brandon Ridley both had their best games,” said the coach. “Offensively we are kind of finding our identity. The concepts are making more sense to the guys and we are able to move it better each week. Those guys can’t get enough credit with how much better they are and the job that Coach Bragg has done with them.”

Final thoughts from the coach, “this was our first complete game of the season and it was nice to see it come together and see how good we can be. The challenge now is handling success. We have a week off and we need to get better this week.”

“We have a couple of extra days to prep for Social Circle, and we need to be sure that time is well spent and we heal up some guys that are banged up but ultimately keep getting better on a daily basis. I’d like to challenge our fans to come out Friday and cheer the guys on. This is our first region ball game and we need to make Hurricane Stadium a true home field advantage. We need as many people in the stands as we can get in the place.”