By Steve Carter
TIFTON — The Tift County Blue Devils were not perfect on offense Friday night, but they were close.
In a second round Class AAAAA state playoff game against the Union Grove Wolverines, the Devils put up 430 yards of total offense as Tift defeated the Wolverines 38-23.
The win put Tift in the third round of the state playoffs for the first time since 1997. The Devils will play either Etowah or North Gwinnett Friday at home. Those two teams play tonight at McEachern High in Atlanta.
Most of the Tift offense came off the arm of Sean Baxley.
The senior was 20-for-27 passing for 324 yards and four touchdowns. He was also picked off three times.
His favorite target was Israel Troupe, who caught seven passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns. Kaream Hess added seven catches for 77 yards and 18 rushes for 61 more yards. The junior scored a touchdown rushing and receiving in the game.
Defensively, the Blue Devils allowed Union Grove quarterback Reid Moss to complete 17-of-37 passes for 238 yards. His favorite target was Owen High, who caught nine passes for 189 yards.
However Moss was rushed the entire night by the Tift County defensive front and never had much time to complete his passes. That helped Tift get three interceptions as Ricky Pierce, Josh Abbott and Geraldo Roberts picked Moss off.
“To me that was the key of the game, our offensive line gave Sean time to pass and our defensive line was in their quarterback’s face the entire night,” Tift head coach Jay Walls said. “We controlled the line of scrimmage and that was big for us.”
Tift opened the game with a Charlie Edwards’ 43-yard field goal with 8:27 left in the first quarter.
However, Union Grove quickly came back to take a 13-3 lead at the end of the quarter as Moss scored from two yards out on a run and later hit High on a 64-yard pass.
Tift quickly recovered the lead when the Devils’ Blake Reddick recovered a Paul Wade punt return on the Wolverine 43.
Three plays later, Hess caught a screen pass from Baxley and went 39 yards for a score.
Then with 3:31 left in the first half, Troupe caught a 42-yard touchdown pass from Baxley.
The Troupe score made the score 17-13 at the end of the first half.
“It was big for us to get the momentum going into the half,” Walls said.
Tift kept that momentum on the team’s second play from scrimmage in the third quarter when Baxley hit a wide-open Jared Davis on a 66-yard touchdown pass.
“It was really big for us to come out strong in the second half and keep that momentum,” Walls said.
The score became 24-16 at the end of the third quarter as Union Grove’s Macklin Hayes kicked a 33-yard field goal with 3:10 left in the third.
Tift then responded with an 11-play, 92-yard drive that ended with Hess scoring a touchdown from four yards out. Edwards’ point after made the score 31-16 with 10:48 left in the third.
Moss would cut the lead again when he ran in from six yards out for a touchdown with 6:52 left in the game.
However, the game was put out of reach with 2:29 left in the game when Baxley hit Troupe on a 45-yard touchdown pass.
Tift’s Roberts would later intercept a pass.
Lanarius McKinley ran 31 yards after that interception down to the Union Grove five. However, Tift took a knee and celebrated the victory.
“It was an ugly win, but we will take it,” Walls said with a smile after the game.
