By Kyle Dean/Sports Editor
TIFTON — Houston’s Robert Williams ran for 185 yards, but Tift County’s Malcolm Dixon ran for 126 yards and two touchdowns and Jakiel McCray had a career-best 113 yards and one touchdown to lead the Blue Devils past the Bears 33-14 on homecoming night at Brodie Field.
The Devils rushed for a season-best 332 yards in the victory to keep their playoff hopes alive in Region 1-AAAAA.
Deadlocked with no score with over three minutes remaining in the first half, the Devils received a Bear punt at their own 49 yard line. Tift marched 51 yards on seven plays behind the three-headed rushing attack of Dixon, McCray and Micah McCant.
The drive was extended on a five-yard run by McCant at the Bears’ 37-yard line. On the next play, Dixon ran eight yards, and McCant ran 24 yards down to the 5-yard line of Houston.
McCant took the next play in for a 5-yard touchdown, and the Devils led 6-0 with 1:05 remaining in the first quarter after a missed PAT.
Late in the second quarter, Tift’s Gerald Pledger partially blocked a Greg Nelson punt to give the Devils great field position at their own 48 yard line.
Once again, Tift County used a controlled running attack to march down the field. The Devils used a 11-play, 52-yard drive that was extended once again by a fourth-down conversion as Dixon found Michael Watts on a 9-yard pass play down to the Bears’ 32 yard line.
McCray picked up 25 yards rushing on the drive that was capped off with a Dixon touchdown with 16 seconds left on the first half clock.
The try for two failed, but the Devils led 12-0 after the first 24 minutes of play.
Williams, who came into the ballgame leading 1-AAAAA in rushing with 884 yards, was held to only 55 yards on 13 carries in the first half.
The senior would break out however, in the third quarter.
The Bears drove 81 yards on their opening drive of the half, scoring when Williams ran a trap play down the visitors’ sidelines for a 48-yard touchdown.
Hunter Heck’s PAT was good and Houston cut into the Blue Devil lead at 12-7 with 8:43 remaining in the third quarter.
But the Blue Devils would come right back with a score of their own. On a third-down play, Dixon excited the homecoming crowd with a 48-yard touchdown run of his own to give the Devils a 19-7 lead with 5:12 remaining in the quarter.
Williams led the Bears down the field yet again, when he broke through the line for a 58-yard run down to the Tift 2-yard line. Two plays later, quarterback Tyler Hall scored from 1-yard out to cut the lead to 19-14 with 3:42 left in the third quarter.
That’s as close as the Bears would get, however.
Tift County again ran down the field behind the legs of Dixon and McCray.
Dixon ran off a 33-yard run down inside the Houston 15-yard line and McCray would pick up the remaining yardage, scoring from 10 yards out with 1:08 remaining in the quarter. Griffin Martin’s PAT extended the Tift lead to 26-14.
After the Bears turned the ball over on downs in the fourth quarter, Tift took over possession at their own 46 yard line, and went 54 yards on 10 straight rushing plays. McCray did the bulk of the work, gaining 53 yards on seven carries. McCant scored from three yards out with the jumbo package in the game to seal the win for the Devils with just under seven minutes remaining in the game.
Besides his rushing numbers, Dixon was 5-of-11 for 46 yards and no interceptions for Tift. McCant rushed for 57 yards on 14 carries for the Blue Devils.
Tift (2-4, 1-2) will travel to Colquitt County Friday night to take on the Packers. Colquitt improved to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in region play, after defeating Valdosta 14-7 on the road.
Houston falls to 3-3 overall and 0-3 in region play.
