Tiftarea survives Bulloch, Hill

Published 4:00 pm Sunday, September 5, 2021

CHULA — The Tiftarea Panthers faced off against the Bulloch Academy Gators Friday night in their second game of the season. Coming off their loss to Central Fellowship the Panthers were focused on one thing, beating the Gators.

Mission accomplished. Tfftarea took down Bulloch, 29-21.

To start the game off, the Gators won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. The Panthers started their first drive on their own 22-yard line. To start the drive, Dylan Harbort connected with Mason Tyler for a first down. After several runs by Harbort and John Austin Lee, the Panthers advanced to Bulloch’s 35-yard line. After a completion from Harbort to Cubbie Crosson to pick up the first down, Harbort connected with Justin Moore for a 23-yard touchdown pass and a 7-0 score.

After receiving the kickoff, the Gators went six plays for 23 yards off several big runs from the Florida State-committed running back Rodney Hill. However, it was a big sack by John Austin Lee on second down that halted the Gators drive. The Gators elected to punt, and Tiftarea took over on their 18.

The Panthers put together another slow methodical drive going 12 plays and taking eight minutes off the clock. Led by a first down pass to Tyler, and two first down runs by Harbort, the Panthers ended another drive on a 34-yard touchdown pass to Moore leading 14-0.

Bulloch started their next drive on the 37 after a 17-yard return by Rodney Hill. The first play of the drive resulted in a first down run from Hill, followed by a first down run by quarterback Brennen Perossa, and caped of with a touchdown run by Hill, bringing the score to 14-7 in Tiftarea’s favor.

Tiftarea regained possession with 1:48 left to go in the half and elected to play it safe with three runs for 18 yards to end the half.

Bulloch received the ball at the start of the second half and marched down the field quickly. After 3 consecutive runs by Perossa, the Gators handed the ball of to star running back Hill who went 74 yards to the touchdown, breaking several tackles along the way. The score was all tied up at 14-14 with 9:33 left in the third quarter.

Once again, after starting on their own 25-yard line, the Panthers went 61 yards in 11 plays taking 7.5 minutes off the clock for another touchdown.

This drive was mainly on the ground as the Panthers ran nine out of the 11 plays. Both Lee and Kameron Brown were involved in this drive picking up 28 and 19 yards respectively, however the drive ended on a 2-yard touchdown run by Harbort.

Coach Erik Soliday decided to go for 2 on the extra point attempt, forcing the Gators to take a timeout to look things over. After the timeout, Coach Soliday decided to go for 1 instead. After the extra point barely squeaked in, the Panthers went up 21-14.

The Gators wasted no time answering back. In under 30 seconds, Hill ran for 62 yards to get his third touchdown of the night, leaving the score at 21-21.

The Panthers next drive started on the 35-yard line.

After a big third down conversion by Lee running for 36 yards, the Panthers were on the Gators side of the field. After another first down run by Harbort, the Panthers had just 25 yards to go to score the go-ahead touchdown.

After a run by Harbort, the Tiftarea quarterback connected with Matthew Malone for a 23-yard touchdown pass. Once again, the Panthers elected to go for two forcing the Gators to use their second timeout. However, this time, coach Soliday stayed with the 2-point play and went up 29-21 off a quarterback run.

With 8:36 left to go in the half, Bulloch started on their own 13. The first play consisted of another first down run by Hill.

After a first down run by Perossa, the Panthers led by John O’Quinn and Jake Henderson, immediately stopped Nick Walton’s run in the backfield for a 3-yard loss.

On second down, Perossa picked up the lost yards and some bringing his team closer to the first down marker, however after a delay of game penalty the Gators had 9 yards to go. Hill picked the 5 yards back up on a second down run leaving his team with a fourth-and-4 situation.

On fourth down, the Panthers defense came up strong forcing the Gators quarterback out of the pocket. Perossa was scrambling and tried to connect with Hill. However, Brown was there to stop him and immediately took Hill to the ground forcing the turnover on downs.

With 4:26 left to go the Panthers ran the ball and picked up a first down on third and 2. With no timeouts left, the Gators had no way of stopping the clock thus sealing the victory for the Panthers.

Some of the rushing leaders of the night for the Panthers were Harbort with 23 carries for 113 and 1 touchdown yards, and Lee with 7 carries for 40 yards. For the Gators Hill had 12 carries for 213 yards and 3 touchdowns, and Perossa with 10 carries for 53 yards. As far as passing, it was all Tiftarea with a total of 175 passing yards from Harbort, including two touchdown passes to Moore for 57 yards, 1 touchdown pass to Malone for 23 yards and 3 passes to Lee for 42 yards.

The Panthers will return to action next Friday against Frederica in Saint Simmons Island. If you are unable to go to the game, you can listen to the game live on 107.5 radio.