By Steve Carter
TIFTON — Because of their 20-17 overtime win over the Houston County Bears Thursday night, the Tift County Blue Devils are above .500 in the Region 1-AAAAA football standings with a 2-1 record.
Being over .500 in the league was the biggest benefit of the victory, Blue Devils head coach Jay Walls said.
“It was a really big win,” said Walls. “Already having one loss, we wanted to stay on the winning side with our record.”
After falling 23-20 to Coffee the week before, Tift was also wary of having to play a Houston County team that had already defeated Lowndes and Colquitt County in region action.
“It was big to get a win on the road against a team as hot as Houston was,” Walls said. “They were pretty hot and they were rolling along, so it was good for our team to beat them at their place.”
The game was a see-saw affair.
Tift took the opening kickoff and went on a 10-play, 43-yard drive that ended with a 45-yard field goal off the foot of Charlie Edwards with 8:30 left in the first quarter.
The Devils forced a punt on Houston’s first possession.
Randy Parker appeared to signal for a fair catch. Everyone stopped on the play, but a whistle never blew, so Parker took off and ran 40 yards to the Houston 10.
Two plays and one Houston offsides penalty later, Tift quarterback Sean Baxley hit Anthony Holloway on a 4-yard touchdown pass. Edwards’ point after made the score 10-0 with 5:29 left in the first quarter.
Paced by the running of Eric O’Neal, Houston then got its offense going.
O’Neal had a 17-yard touchdown run with 7:33 left in the second quarter and his running was instrumental in Houston going on a 13-play, 76-yard drive at the end of the first half that resulted in a 21-yard field goal by Michael Thompson with 18.3 seconds left.
At the half, O’Neal had 13 carries for 109 yards and would eventually end the game with 30 carries for 187 yards. Houston ended up with 248 total yards as a team.
“He is a good running back,” Walls said of O’Neal. “The best thing about his performance was he got a lot of yardage on cutbacks and breaking tackles. It was not like he had a lot of gaping holes to run through.”
Early in the fourth quarter, Houston’s Dedrick Early fumbled a punt that was recovered by Tift’s Justin Wilson.
As a result of that recovery, the Devils would later break the tie when Baxley hit Marvin Chaney on a 9-yard touchdown pass. After Edwards’ point after, the score was 17-10 with 8:55 left in the game.
Later in the period, Houston’s Chris Prewitt recovered a fumbled punt by Tift’s Israel Troupe.
On the ensuing drive, Bear quarterback Jeff Thompson would score from one yard out with 2:18 left. Michael Thompson’s extra point tied the game.
The game would then go into overtime.
O’Neal appeared to fade at the end of the game.
Houston took the ball first in the overtime and O’Neal lost six yards on two carries. The Bears then had an incomplete pass.
On 4th-and-16, Michael Thompson’s 39-yard field goal attempt was wide left.
Walls did not hesitate as he had Edwards kick a 32-yard field goal on Tift’s first play on the Devils’ first overtime possession to give Tift the victory.
“There was not much thought at all that went into that decision,” Walls said. “I told everyone if we held them, we were going to go right out there and kick the field goal.”
Tift had 134 total yards of offense.
Baxley was 15-for-19 passing for 106 yards. Kaream Hess had 11 carries for 55 yards and three catches for 16 yards. Troupe had six catches for 44 yards and two rushes for 18 yards.
Tift will host the Warner Robins Demons Friday night at Brodie Field. Game time is 8 p.m.
Depending on what happens in Warner Robins’ matchup with Coffee tonight, the Demons could come in with a 3-0 mark in 1-AAAAA play.
