By Steve Carter
MOULTRIE — As a freshman, Tift County Blue Devil place-kicker Charlie Edwards missed an extra point against the Colquitt County Packers in a game that would have sent Tift to the state playoffs.
Three years later, Edwards redeemed himself in a big way as he kicked a 22-yard field goal in triple overtime to give the Devils a 38-35 victory over the Packers. The win gives Tift its first region football title in 23 years.
With the win, Tift will now host the Mundy’s Mill Tigers, the No. 4 team out of Region 4-AAAAA, in the first round of the state playoffs.
Mundy’s Mill earned the first state playoff spot in school history Friday night with a 31-14 victory over the Morrow Mustangs. Mundy’s Mill is in its fourth year of existence and has never played a game south of Macon.
“I knew it was good when I hit it,” Edwards said of his kick that gave Tift the victory in a game that saw them down 14-0 in the first quarter.
The senior added, “This was a great team win for us. Everyone contributed.”
That was evident on the play that set up Edwards’ kick.
Going for it on a fourth-and-goal from the two in their third overtime period, Colquitt’s Orion Ponder appeared to be on his way to scoring a touchdown on a sweep play. But out of nowhere came Tift safety Jay Gaskins to stop Ponder one-half of a yard short from the goalline.
That play was typical of the entire game as Tift and Colquitt fought each other night.
Colquitt scored two touchdowns early as quarterback Channing Hudson threw touchdown passes of 15 yards to Vance Cuff and of 54 yards to B.J. Howard.
However the Howard score with 4:47 left in the first quarter was Colquitt’s last touchdown until late in the fourth quarter.
While the Tift defense kept Colquitt out of the end zone, the Devil offense began to show life late in the first half.
Taking over on their own four yardline late in the second quarter, the Devils drove 96 yards for their first touchdown.
That score came with 29 seconds left as Sean Baxley hit Marvin Chaney for a 11-yard touchdown. Edwards’ point after made the score 14-7 at the half.
After a scoreless third quarter, Baxley hit Israel Troupe on an eight-yard touchdown pass with 4:23 left in the game.
Troupe had 12 catches in the game for 66 yards to go along with the touchdown.
“It feels great to win the region as a senior,” Troupe said after the game. “We battled all night and when we had to the offense and the defense stepped it up.”
The 14-14 tie did not last long as Hudson hit Ponder on a 60-yard touchdown pass on Colquitt’s next possesion. That put the Packers up 21-14 with 3:14 left in the game.
Hudson ended the night going 25-for-30 passing for 305 yards, while Ponder had eight catches for 102 yards. Cuff also added seven catches for 93 yards in the contest.
Unexpectedly, Colquitt’s Matt DeMott kicked a pooch kick on the kickoff. Kaream Hess called for a fair catch and Tift had the ball in excellent field position on their own 40.
After Baxley was sacked for a seven-yard loss on the first play from scrimmage, the Tift quarterback then ran for five yards. However on that play, Colquitt was called a late hit which gave Tift a first down.
The hit knocked Baxley out of the game for one play, but sophomore Nick Prostko came in and calmly hit Jared Davis up the middle for a 10-yard gain and a first down.
Later in the drive, Tift faced a second-and-18 from Colquitt’s 45. Baxley hit Hess on a 13-yard pass and Chaney on another pass for a seven-yard gain that gave Tift a first down at the Packer 25.
The Blue Devils then had another long situation as the Packers would force third-and-22 play. Baxley threw to Davis near the goalline, the ball was incomplete, but Colquitt was called for pass interference giving Tift an automatic first down.
Tift was then called for pass interference, which forced a second-and-25 as there is an automatic loss of down on that play.
However, Tift would come right back as Hess caught a 22-yard pass, then ran for the first down on a four-yard gain.
Three plays later, Baxley hit Davis over the middle for an 11-yard touchdown pass with 23.7 seconds left in the game.
Baxley ended the game completing 25-of-36 passes for 200 yards. The senior threw for three touchdowns and was intercepted once.
Hess had 137 yards rushing on 27 carries and caught four passes for 47 yards.
That final drive in regulation was symbolic of the entire night as Tift kept coming back against Colquitt.
“I am very proud of our kids,” Tift head coach Jay Walls said. “Colquitt came after us all night. But we kept on playing and didn’t give up.”
The Davis score sent the game into overtime a familiar place for Tift as the Devils had already won two games in region play in overtime, 10-7 over Valdosta and 20-17 over Houston.
“I was happy about going into overtime, because I knew we were experienced in overtime,” said Walls.
Colquitt got the ball first and quickly scored when Hudson hit Dontrell Johnson for a 15-yard touchdown.
Tift answered with a four-yard scoring run from Hess.
The Devils had the ball first in the second overtime and Hess scored from one yard out. Colquitt then answered when Cuff caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Hudson.
Then came the third overtime periods that saw the exciting conclusion.
“This was just a great game,” Walls said. “We needed a win like this, this time of the year.”
