Bren Shepard/The Tifton Gazette
CNHI
TIFTON —
Zachery Kirk recovered an onside kick from Josue Perez and the Glynn Academy Red Terrors pulled out a 13-10 victory over the Tift County Blue Devils, to spoil Tift’s homecoming night.
The game started off promising for the Blue Devils, as they took their second drive 59 yards in eight plays to set up a 31-yard field goal by Perez.
After that point Tift would be held to -1 yard until 7:53 left in the fourth quarter.
Going into halftime the score was tied 3-3 after a 31-yard field goal by Preston Delaney for Glynn Academy.
Delaney also plays quarterback for the team, he passed only nine times on the night but completed six of them for 76 yards.
In the third quarter Delaney ran in from two yards out on a quarterback bootleg to put the Red Terrors up 10-3.
Both defenses played well the entire night. The Red Terrors, led on offense and defense by James Dean, held Tift to 163 yards on the night.
Tift held Glynn Academy to 287 yards. Demetrius King, Terrance Felton, Ricky Sutton, Devarius Vance, Shaq Bryant, Shaquille Lewis, Jakevin Jackson, Gerald Pledger, Bryson Chaney, Rashad Parks, Steven Waters and Ladarius Steward all contributed with a few tackles each.
Dean picked up 150 of those yards, with 96 coming on the ground and 54 more through the air.
As if that weren’t enough, Dean added at least 20 tackles on the defensive side of the ball. Wherever the ball went, you could bet that Dean wasn’t far from the action.
Jonathan Alford did most the work on the ground for Glynn, rushing 24 times for 103 yards.
With 7:53 on the clock in the fourth quarter the Blue Devils took over on their own 15-yard line. Five plays later they were on their own 48 facing a fourth and three. The Devils elected to pass in the situation, but the ball fell incomplete for a turnover on downs.
The Red Terrors took two and a half minutes off the clock while moving the ball only 15 yards. This set them up for a 50-yard field goal attempt.
Had it been a 51-yard attempt it would have been no good. Unfortunately for Tift, it sneaked over the post to give the Terrors a 13-3 lead with 2:20 to go in the game.
Tift would not go down without a fight, as they drove 74 yards in just over two minutes to bring the game within three points.
On the drive, Jackson passed for 37 yards including a 15-yard touchdown pass to Nick Utley.
Jackson added 22 yards on the ground in the final drive, with the Devils getting a little help from a fifteen yard pass interference call on the Terrors.
Jackson completed nine passes on the day for 112 yards and a touchdown. Utley brought in six of those passes for 74 yards, Drew Davis caught two for 23 yards and Donnell Tuff had one reception for fifteen yards.
Tift rushed 23 times for only 51 yards.
The Blue Devils fall to 3-3 after a hot 3-0 start as they head into region play next week. They will face Coffee at Brodie Field Friday at 8 p.m. Coffee enters the game with a 3-3 record as well.
