Steve Carter/News Editor
CNHI
TIFTON —
Down 14-0 less than seven minutes into a brand-spanking-new football season, playing against one of the best overall teams in the state, the Tift County Blue Devils could have done one of two things Friday.
They could have let the homestanding Fitzgerald High Purple Hurricanes continue to roll over them, or they could find a spark and mount a comeback.
The spark came from an unlikely play as Terrance Felton fumbled a kickoff. However, as the result of that kickoff, Gerald Pledger raced 75 yards for an apparent touchdown. The score was called back, but it fired up the Devils as on the next play from scrimmage Rashad Daniels raced 56 yards for a touchdown.
“That really seem to ignite us,” Tift coach Jay Walls said Saturday. “We begin to play hard at that point.”
That hard play continued as Bre’nard Williams would pick up a Fitzgerald fumble and go 63 yards for a touchdown. Drew Davis’ blocked punt would later lead to another Daniels’ score, and Tift went from being down 14-0 in what could have been a rout, to a 19-14 lead.
Fitzgerald would quickly regain a lead on a Kaleb Nobles’ touchdown pass to Darreal Joyner but no matter what happened after that, the Devils had shown they will be a team that plays with a lot of heart this season.
“Fitzgerald made several big plays and we knew we had to contain the big plays to have a chance against them,” said Walls. “Kaleb Nobles is one of the best quarterbacks we will see this season, and Fitzgerald is a great team.”
It looked like a first game for Tift, and for Fitzgerald for that matter, mistakes were made that should be corrected with continued practice and work, a point Walls emphasized.
“We did some good things out there, but we made mistakes in all three phases of the game,” said Walls.
There were dropped passes, missed blocking assignments and other things that can be seen by the eye on offense. And probably other things that only coaches would notice during games and on tape.
“On two or three of their big pass plays, we missed assignments on defense,” said Walls.
Finally, on special teams, Griffin Martin missed a point after. But his resolve was evident on the sideline because he worked on his technique for the remainder of the night.
“We are going in the right direction, and if we continue to work hard and prepare hard, we can have a pretty good football team this season,” Walls said.
The Region 4-AAA Locust Grove Wildcats will be at Brodie Field on Friday for an 8 p.m. game. It will be Tift’s home opener and it will be the first game for Locust Grove, a team that will be playing a regular schedule this year after just coming into existence last season.
