By Steve Carter
FITZGERALD — The Tift County Blue Devils moved into a tie for first place in the Region 1-AAAAA football standings Saturday night with a 17-10 victory over the Warner Robins Demons.
With the victory, Tift (7-1 overall) is now tied at 3-1 at the top of the league with Warner Robins (5-3) and Lowndes High. The Devils also control their own destiny as wins in their final two games over Lowndes and Colquitt County would give Tift the Region 1-AAAAA title.
Kaream Hess led the Devils’ offense in the game with 23 carries for 146 yards. The effort included a first-quarter performance that saw him rush for 91 yards on 10 carries, while scoring one touchdown.
While Hess got 91 yards on his own in the first quarter, Tift’s defense held Warner Robins to only 10 net yards in the first 12 minutes of play.
Going five plays and 47 yards on its second drive of the game, Tift got on the board first with a 15-yard touchdown run by Hess. The junior running back also had the other big play on the drive when he went on a 20-yard scamper to begin the drive. After Charlie Edwards’ point after the score was 7-0 with 5:59 left in the first.
On Tift’s next possession, the Devils faced a fourth-and-short at the Demon 36, but a Hess 2-yard run gave Tift a first down. The fourth down conversion helped Tift add three more points as Edwards ended up converting a 35-yard field goal on the first play of the second quarter. The field goal ended a 13-play, 28-yard drive.
Later in the second quarter, Warner Robins finally cracked the scoreboard when Tim Green intercepted a pass from Tift’s Sean Baxley and went 36 yards for a touchdown. David Clark added the point after and the score was 10-7 with 8:46 left in the first half.
The Green interception was huge at that point as Warner Robins had not yet garnered a first down in the contest.
Led by the running of Hess and Anthony Holloway, the Devils answered the Green touchdown with a 7-play, 71-yard drive that ended when Hess scored from 6 yards out. Hess had five carries for 44 yards on the drive, while Holloway added two carries for 27 more yards.
Edwards’ point after made the score 17-7 with 6:08 left in the first half.
On their next drive, the Demons finally got a first down as quarterback Mark Wright hit Antwan Hamilton on a 32-yard pass to the Tift 36 with 5:15 left in the second quarter. However, Tift held and got the ball back on downs when Randy Parker broke up a Wright pass attempt on a fourth-and-10.
Tift dominated the first half with 223 yards of total offense, compared to 50 for Warner Robins.
There was no scoring in the third quarter, but Warner Robins did outgain Tift in total yardage, 36 to 26. However, Tift had several big defensive plays to defuse any potential Warner Robins threats. Those included big hits from Shayon Green and Larry Bryant.
The Devils took over early in the fourth quarter and began their first sustained drive of the night as Baxley hit Worth Ellis and Hess on passes to garner first downs. The end result was an Edwards’ 39-yard field goal attempt that fell short.
In the middle of the fourth quarter, Warner Robins went for it twice on fourth down. Jeremy Grant converted once on a fake punt attempt. The second time saw Tift’s Randy Parker called for pass interference.
Wright then hit big passes to Brandon Jordan, Grant and Hamilton to get Warner Robins down to the Tift 5.
Facing a third-and-1 at the 5, Warner Robins’ Jackson was stopped by a host of Devils.
That left a fourth-and-1 from the 5, Clark then hit a 22-yard field goal with 1:29 left in the game.
The Demons then went for an onsides kick. The ball was recovered by Tift’s A.J. Brown. Tift then took over at the 50 and Warner Robins forced a punt.
The Demons took over on their 21, but Wright's pass was intercepted by Tift's Jay Gaskins on the last play of the game.
Besides Hess, Tift’s Holloway had four carries for 46 yards. For Warner Robins, DeWayne Jackson had 21 carries for 74 yards.
