ATLANTA — The best season in nine years for the Tift County Blue Devils football team came to an end Saturday night with a 24-10 loss to the Roswell High Hornets in the state Class AAAAA semifinals at the Georgia Dome.
Tift was down 14-10 at the end of the first half, but Roswell dominated the final 24 minutes.
The Hornets outgained Tift in total yardage, 184-to-7, and added 10 points.
“We just didn’t come to play tonight,” said Tift head coach Jay Walls. “Roswell had the momentum all night and took advantage.”
Field position also killed Tift in the second half. The Devils’ best starting field position came on its own 32.
“That was another big thing in Roswell’s favor,” Walls said.
A 39-yard punt by Roswell’s Jim Broadway landed on the Tift one in the middle of the third quarter. Tift could not move and was forced to punt and Charlie Edwards’ kick went out to the Devil 33.
Two plays later, Roswell quarterback Dustin Taliaferro hit Will Naclerio on a 33-yard touchdown pass. Broadway’s kick made the score 21-10 with 1:51 left in the third.
Broadway would later add another score as his 29-yard field goal with 6:47 left in the contest were the final points in the contest.
While Roswell dominated the second half, neither team could do much early in the game.
The first break in the game came when Roswell’s Dominique Wheeler intercepted a pass by Tift quarterback Sean Baxley. The pass bounced off of Worth Ellis’ hands and Wheeler returned it 11 yards to the Devil 37.
However, the interception did not hurt Tift as the Devils’ A.J. Brown came back to intercept a pass by Taliaferro.
Tift could not capitalize and was forced to punt.
“We had first half turnovers and that hurt us. Then we couldn’t capitalize on the turnovers we had,“ said Walls.
Roswell took the kick and drove 78 yards on 11 plays for the game’s first score, a 19-yard touchdown pass from Taliaferro to Daniel Niedzwiecki with 10:02 left in the second quarter. The score came on a third-and-7 play.
The Hornet defense again held and forced a Tift punt.
On the first play from scrimmage, Alex Daniel burst up the middle and went 76 yards for a Hornet touchdown. Broadway’s extra point made the score 14-0 in favor of Roswell with 7:37 left in the first half.
Tift quickly responded when Marvin Chaney took the Roswell kickoff and went 81 yards before being knocked out-of-bounds at the Hornet one.
On the next play, Kaream Hess went in for the score behind the blocking of Anthony Holloway and Lanarius McKinley.
Taliaferro faced a third-and-8 from his 39 on the next Hornet possession. Pressured by Jeffery Searcy, the senior threw into coverage and Tift’s Jarvis Watts intercepted and returned the ball eight yards to the Roswell 45.
The Hornets quickly answered as Quinton Franklin intercepted a Baxley pass on the next play and returned 28 yards to the Roswell 43.
However, Tift held and forced a punt.
The Devils took over on the 23 and began a drive that ended with a Charlie Edwards 26-yard field goal with 12 seconds left in the half.
Hess was the star of the drive. The junior had a 22-yard run on a fake punt and also caught three passes for 47 yards.
Overall on the night Tift only had 107 yards of total offense. Hess was responsible for 83 of those yards as he ran nine times for 39 yards and caught four passes for 44 more.
Senior Israel Troupe had four catches for 27 yards in his last contest as a Devil.
Daniel finished the night with 31 carries for 192 yards. Taliaferro was 14-for-24 with two touchdowns, two interceptions and 193 yards through the air.
Roswell ended the night with 383 yards of total offense.
Tift ends the year with a 12-2 record. Roswell goes to 13-1 and will play for the state Class AAAAA title Saturday against either Warner Robins or Peachtree Ridge. The outcome of those teams’ semifinal game was not known at presstime.
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