CHULA — Desperately wanting a home playoff game, the Tiftarea Academy Panthers needed two things to happen Friday night.
Scoring on their first play from scrimmage against the Valwood School Valiants, the Panthers got one thing, a 42-7 home victory on Senior Night.
However, the second didn’t come to fruition as Sherwood Christian Academy defeated Southwest Georgia Academy, 33-26. With the tie-breakers in Region 3-AA, Sherwood emerged as the league champions at the end of the night, while SGA took second.
Tiftarea wound up in third, and will open the state playoffs on the road next week in Sandersville, when they face Brentwood Academy.
Even though he would have rather opened up state play in the friendly confines of the Panther Pit, Tiftarea coach Marvin Barton said, “We have to deal with the hand we were given.”
While they wanted a home playoff game, the Panthers opened up early and quick on Valwood to make their last regular season home game special.
After stopping Valwood on a 4th-and-2 play early in the ball game at midfield, the Panthers quickly got on the board as Wes Carter hit Sumner McWhorter on a 49-yard touchdown pass. Garrett Rippy’s point after made the score 7-0 , with 9:41 left in the first quarter.
“Valwood is a very young team, and we knew that going in, but we were able to get out there and establish ourselves early,” said Barton.
Highlighted by a 39-yard run by Devonte Fountain, the Valiants drove down to the Tiftarea 27 on their next drive. But Tiftarea’s Justin Brooks tackled the Valiant ball carrier for a loss on a 4th-and-1 play which gave the Panthers the ball back.
“They had a couple of times when they moved the ball, but we had two big fourth-down stops in the first quarter. Those were big plays by our defense,” Barton said.
Six plays and 81 yards later, McWhorter scored his second touchdown of the night on a 22-yard run. Rippy’s point after made the score 14-0 with 4:07 left in the first.
From then on out it was all Panthers in the first half.
The Panthers got touchdowns in the second quarter from Chandler Hammond, 19-yard run; Brooks, 42-yard pass from Carter; and McWhorter, 21-yard pass from Carter.
Up 35-0 at the half, the Panthers had 347 yards of total offense, to 75 for Valwood.
Carter didn’t throw another pass after intermission and ended the night with 4-for-5 passing performance for 137 yards and three touchdowns. The only completion that did not end in a score was a 22-yard pass to Chad Bowen. Ironically, that play also appeared to have resulted in a touchdown as Bowen went 53 yards on the play into the end zone. However, a clipping penalty negated the touchdown.
“That’s one thing I was not happy with; we had too many flags. We will have to get better at that, if we want to do anything farther on,” said Barton.
Running one time for 7 yards in the second half, McWhorter ended the night with six carries for 71 yards, and two catches for 76 yards.
“Wes had a good night throwing, and Sumner had a good night running the ball,” said Barton.
Besides his touchdown catch, Brooks also had three carries for 41 yards, while Hammond added seven carries for 35 yards.
The second half was played with a running clock, but a memorable play did occur.
A 70-yard kickoff return by Hammond opened the second half for Tiftarea.
That gave the Panthers the ball on the Valiant 25. Four plays later, senior Oliver Merritt scored his first career touchdown on a 2-yard run. That garnered a standing ovation from the Tiftarea crowd.
Fountain would finally put Valwood on the board in the fourth quarter on a 2-yard touchdown run.
“It was a good game, everyone got to play, and that’s a good reward for a lot of hard-working players,” said Barton.
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