The Fitzgerald Purple Hurricane finished the regular season 10-0 with a 20-16 victory over the Brooks County Trojans Friday in Fitzgerald.
The Region 1-AA champions will now host Bleckley County in the first round of the Class AA playoffs next week. The loss also eliminated Brooks from the playoffs, as the Cook High Hornets will go in as the No. 4 seed from Region 1-AA.
The final game was a battle for the Hurricane. Despite going up 20-0, Brooks stormed back to make the score close.
Fitzgerald outgained the Trojans 265 to 159 and forced five Brooks turnovers, but the Trojans held the Hurricane’s star running back Nick Williams to only 37 yards on 20 carries. Dion Ross came up big for the Hurricane with 115 yards on 12 attempts.
Fitzgerald’s first score came on a 2-yard dive by Ross with 2:21 left in the first quarter. Victor Ayala’s kick gave the Hurricane a 7-0 lead.
Williams added a 1-yard scoring run with 3:38 left in the second quarter. Ayala booted the extra point for a 14-0 Fitzgerald lead.
Ross scored his second touchdown of the night with 7:53 left in the third quarter. The kick failed, and Fitzgerald held a 20-0 advantage.
Brooks scored on a 3-yard run by Greg Morley with less than two minutes left in the third, and added a two-point pass to make the score 20-8. The Trojans scored again on a 1-yard run by Jeremy Cody and added another two-point pass to bring the score to 20-16. However, the Trojans could never go ahead.
Brad Taylor was 4-of-14 passing for 63 yards and one interception for Fitzgerald. Trenton Pruitt caught two of the passes for 47 yards.
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