TIFTON — The Turner County Rebels and the Fitzgerald Purple Hurricanes each advanced into their respective state football quarterfinals Friday nights with wins.
Turner defeated Brookstone 20-14 in Columbus Friday.
Coach Erik Soliday’s Rebels will now face off against the Wilkinson County Warriors Friday night in the quarterfinals. With Turner and Wilkinson each being No. 2 seeds out of their respective regions, a coin toss was held Saturday morning and Turner won the toss. That means the Rebels will host the Warriors at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Alan Hobby Field in Ashburn.
Fitzgerald garnered an impressive 45-20 win over the Henry County Warhawks Friday in McDonough. The Hurricanes will have to travel back to the Atlanta area Friday to face the Pepperell High School Dragons. That game will also be at 7:30 p.m.
To advance, Turner jumped out to a 14-0 lead over Brookstone. E.J. Walker scored both touchdowns on runs of three and seven yards. The second score saw Kenveyon Newberry hit Javon Lawhorne for a two-point conversion.
After a Brookstone touchdown, Dee Hayles scored what turned out to be the game-winner for the Rebels when he broke loose on an 84-yard scoring run.
Brookstone would later score another touchdown at the halfway point of the fourth quarter. The Rebels took the ball over after the ensuing kickoff and ran the clock out.
In Fitzgerald’s win over the Warhawks Friday, Hurricane quarterback Brad Taylor outdueled heralded Henry County signal caller Drew Little.
In the game, Taylor was 7-for-9 for 162 yards passing. That included four scoring passes.
The first two of those touchdown throws were to R.J. Davis for 62 and 35 yards, respectively. Taylor would then throw another touchdown pass, this one for nine yards to Tevin Stewart-Gaulden.
A late Henry County score in the first half made the halftime score, 21-7, in favor of the Hurricanes.
Fitzgerald would quickly answer with a 32-yard field goal by Mauro Meza, and a 27-yard scoring pass from Taylor to Trenton Pruitt.
Kaleb Nobles would later add a 57-yard scoring pass to Stewart-Gaulden, while Nick Williams would also add a five-yard touchdown run.
Sebastian Ruff would add the point after following both of those final touchdowns.
Besides Taylor’s stats, Davis would add two catches for 97 yards, while Williams had 20 carries for 111 yards on the ground.
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