Pledger helps Tift survive Shiloh

TIFTON — The Shiloh High Generals made the Tift County Blue Devils sweat through three quarters, but Gerald Pledger took the game into his own hands and gave the Blue Devils a 28-14 victory Friday night.

At halftime the score was 7-7, Tift’s lone score coming on an interception returned for a touchdown by Shaquille Lewis. Lewis jumped in front of the Generals receiver and dove into the endzone to tie the game up 7-7, after the Generals took their second drive 66 yards for a touchdown to take the lead.

Tift had a chance to take the lead in the first half after Howard Ryan blocked a Shiloh punt. Tift took over on the 16 but was unable to get a first down and missed their field goal wide left. Tift headed into the half with only 14 yards of total offense.

The Generals held Tift to just 16 yards through the first three quarters, and held a 14-7 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Just 16 seconds into the last quarter, the Blue Devils took over on their own 17-yard line. The Devils needed a spark, after not moving the ball all night their early season perfect record depended on in. They ran a very balanced attack, passing for 36 yards, one pass to Nick Utley, and the others to Donnell Tuff. Jakevin Jackson, Kris Miller. Pledger took the ball the other 47 yards on the ground. The 10-play drive was capped off by an incredible diving catch by Tuff, who caught it with his finger tips in the endzone after the ball was deflected away from him. Early in the drive, Miller converted a fourth and short on a quarterback sneak.

Tift’s defense came up big on the ensuing Shiloh drive, holding them to a three and out. Tift took over the ball with 5:42 left in the game and 62 yards to go after the Generals’ punt.

The Blue Devils ran four minutes off the clock, methodically running for short yardage to eat up the clock. Pledger took the ball in from seven yards out to give the Blue Devils a 21-14 lead with 1:15 to go.

Any hopes of a comeback victory for the Generals ended very quickly.

On the first play of the drive Pledger intercepted the ball and ran it 35 yards back to seal the game for the Blue Devils, who advance to 3-0 for the first time since 2007.

On a day where the offense struggled, the Devils were saved by their defense, who kept the game close until the fourth. Tift fumbled eight times on the night, but were lucky enough to recover all of them. Pledger, Steven Waters, Devarius Vance, Demetrius King, Ricky Sutton and Jakevin Jackson all had several tackles for the Blue Devils. The Devils held the Generals to 127 yards on the night.

Miller did not complete a pass in the first half, but ended 4-9 and 46 yards, with one interception and one touchdown. Tuff and Utley each had 23 yards receiving, with Utley bringing in three of the passes. Jakevin Jackson led the team in rushing, going for 62 yards on 15 attempts, most of them out of the Wildcat formation. Rashad Daniels added 24 yards on 10 touches and Pledger rushed for 22 yards and a touchdown on five carries.

The Blue Devils will look to go 4-0 on the season next week against the Stephenson High Jaguars. Tift is 0-2 all time against the Jaguars, losing last season 14-7. That game will be at Brodie Field, with a kickoff of 8 p.m.

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