Twiggs Defeats ‘Canes
Regional rival Twiggs County came to town last Friday evening and walloped the ‘Canes 43-13 before a homecoming and senior night crowd. Strange as it may seem with such a lopsided score the ‘Canes actually held the lead in the game on two occasions during the first half.
The ‘Canes took advantage of a Cobra fumble on their second play of the game when Brad Lynch recovered the loose ball on the Cobra 41 yard line. On fourth down and three the ‘Canes chose to go for it from the Cobra 34 yard line.
Quarterback Keldrick Davis faked a handoff to the right side and bootlegged left all the way down to the Cobra 17. Four plays later after being backed up to the 21, Davis caught a pass deep in the end zone from Octavius Epps. Darius Colvard kicked the extra point and the ‘Canes led 7-0 with 7:27 left in the first half.
The Cobras, on an eight-play drive, had the ball on the ‘Cane 24 when they fumbled again. This time it was Derek Campbell who jumped on the loose ball and the ‘Canes were back in business on offense, but gave the ball over on downs on the Cobra 39 yard line after four straight incomplete pass attempts.
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The Cobras didn’t fumble on this possession and six plays later completed a long pass for a touchdown, scored two points on the point-after play, and took the lead 8-7.
On the play after the Cobra kick off, Davis suffered a broken finger, reportedly putting him out for the remainder of the season. After picking up one first down, Epps hit Caleb Reynolds for a 34 yard reception down to the Cobra 21. Four plays later Epps scored from the one yard line. The ‘Canes went for two but didn’t make it, however they had taken the lead for the second time in the game, 13-8, with nine minutes left in the first half.
After receiving the kickoff the Cobras put together a long 12 play drive and eventually punched it in for a score from the ‘Cane one yard line. Once again they went for two points, scored them, and regained the lead at 16-13 just before the first half ended.
The ‘Canes came out for the second half, down three points, but well in the game. After receiving the Cobra’s kickoff, for the first time in the game the ‘Canes were forced to punt. It was a short one and the Cobras took over possession on their own 43, and broke a run on their first play down to the ‘Cane five yard line. On the next play they ran for a touchdown, then for two points, and suddenly it was 24-13.
On their next possession the ‘Canes picked up two first downs on a 13 yard reception by J.C. Dunagan and a nine yard run by Epps, but turned the ball over on downs four plays later on the Cobra 36 yard line.
The ‘Cane defense held and forced the Cobras to punt, but then fumbled the ball on their second play and a Cobra defender picked up the loose ball and scored. They didn’t convert the two-point play this time, but extended their lead to 30-13 as the third quarter came to a close.
The Cobras went on to score 13 more points in the fourth quarter. The ‘Canes did threaten late in the fourth quarter and had the ball first and goal on the Cobra nine yard line, but threw an interception in the end zone. The loss places their record at 1-7 overall and 0-5 in the region.
Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Jimmy Hughes gave an update on the injuries and then addressed last week’s game.
“Our center, Dustin Powell, is pretty banged up. We’ll keep him out of practice part of the week and hope he’ll be ready Friday. Lance Dennis did play last week, but he’s only at about 70 percent. Keldrick Davis had a break in his hand and is out for six weeks and won’t even be able to play basketball until around Christmas.
“Our kids played as hard as they could last week. We made some mistakes, but we played well in the first half. We had a plan to throw the ball, but when we lost Keldrick we had to change in the middle of the stream. Defensively we recovered a couple of fumbles, but the game is 48 minutes long and we only played 24 of them. In the second half we got physically worn down because so many of our kids have to go both ways and they played a lot of different players on offense and defense, especially on the line.
The last two games of the season are away, versus GMC and Aquinas, two teams with only one win between them and who have averaged scoring only six points and giving up 40 points per game this season.
The ‘Canes travel to Milledgeville tomorrow night hoping they can get a win against the 0-8 Bulldogs.
Coach Hughes said, “We’re going to practice and prepare just like we would for any other team. We’ve been working on a plan about what we do well. Right now we’re more concerned about trying to get us as good as we can be than what the other team can do. If we do that I think we’ll be fine.
“Right now our program is not in a good position because of all our injuries. When we lost Keldrick it was like losing three players because he started both ways for us, and was also our punter. Those kids at GMC are hungry for a win too. They haven’t won a game or been in any close games. Our kids have performed well at times, and I hope we have done the things which will enable us to go over there and win.”