By Kyle Dean/Sports Editor
TIFTON — Callaway High has won ten straight games since opening the 2009 season with back-to-back losses.
The Cavaliers will go for 11-in-a-row, when they travel to Fitzgerald for a Class AA quarterfinal meeting with Fitzgerald on Friday at Jaycee Stadium.
After losing to Class AAA and county rival Troup by a field goal and to Class AA quarterfinalist Lovett by a 56-28 score, the Cavaliers won each regular season game by at least 31 points — with their highest being a 62 point win over Crawford County on Oct. 22.
Lovett will play Charlton County on the opposite side of the Class AA bracket on Friday.
In the playoffs, Callaway defeated Riverside Military Academy 47-7 and beat Westminster in a close 31-28 game Friday in LaGrange.
Facing a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, head coach Pete Wiggins sent the offense on the field, and quarterback Quan Bray scored to give Callaway the go-ahead touchdown with 13 seconds remaining in the game.
Bray finished the game with 96 yards rushing and 135 passing yards to lead the Cavaliers to the quarterfinals for the first time in school history.
“We didn’t hesitate,” Wiggins told the LaGrange Daily News.
“We knew we were going to go for it. We believe in what we’re doing and we believed our offensive line was going to come off and give us that one yard we needed, and that’s what they did.”
Junior running back Marquis Terrell rushed for 142 yards on 21 attempts, including a 36-yard touchdown run on an option play and a 48-yard run.
Terrell, who has received some Division 1 attention from Georgia Tech, has 1,617 yards and 26 touchdowns this season.
The Cavaliers also scored on a 75-yard pass play from Bray to 6-foot-3 receiver Quantavius Leslie.
Leslie, a senior, is also a D-1 recruit and ended the game with 135 receiving yards and a touchdown — giving the playmaker seven for the season.
Leslie, who has been shown interest by West Virginia University, rarely leaves the field, playing wide receiver, defensive back and a returner on special teams. The do-it-all player has returned three interceptions for touchdowns and in the return game, has a punt return and a kickoff return for a score.
The Cavaliers did allow 400 yards of offense to Westminster, and offense is what the Fitzgerald Purple Hurricane do best.
In a 64-36 win over Swainsboro, the Hurricane officially had 627 yards of offense.
Trenton Pruitt had 346 yards of offense (124 rushing, 112 receiving) and two touchdowns receiving from quarterback Kaleb Nobles.
Nobles was effecient on the night, with 203 yards though the air on 12-of-16 passes. The sophomore had three touchdown tosses and one interception.
Nobles also had two touchdown runs.
Nobles has passed for 1,821 yards on 107-of-151 passing and 19 touchdowns. He has been intercepted only four times this season.
Fullback Nick Williams had 144 yards on 21 attempts and a touchdown, and Latravious Stewart picked up 78 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries.
Williams has 1,048 yards rushing and 18 touchdowns on the year, while Pruitt has 1,910 all-purpose yards (851 rushing, 752 receiving, 307 in returns) and 23 total touchdowns.
Overall, Fitzgerald has amassed 5,277 yards of total offense (3,404 rushing and 1,873 passing) and 75 touchdowns (54 rushing, 21 passing).
The Hurricane have now scored 576 points this season. The state record is 682 which was set by the Dublin Fighting Irish in 2006. Dublin tied Charlton County for the Class AA championship to finish 14-0-1.
Game time is slated for 7:30 p.m. and can be heard on WRDO-FM(96.9).
