QB’s big night leads Lassiter past Sprayberry

Hutson Mason couldn’t do everything for Lassiter on Friday night. But he almost did.

The Trojans junior quarterback threw for four touchdowns and rushed for another as Lassiter topped Sprayberry 42-28 at Frank Fillman Stadium. Mason got off to a blazing start hitting eight different receivers with his first eight completions.

He didn’t even need his dynamic Division I tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen.

“Philip is sort of our bell cow our there,” first-year Lassiter coach Chip Lindsey said. “I told our guys for us to be successful, other guys had to step up. We have other players that can catch the ball.”

It showed. Mason went 12-of-18 for 141 yards for four scores in the first half, but it was a second-half handoff that proved most significant. Senior tailback Xavier Morgan scored on a 12-yard burst with 8:01 remaining in the game.

The scoring drive gave Lassiter (1-0) a 42-16 lead. It wasn’t so much a cushion as a reviving arrival for Lindsey’s spread offense.

“The deal with [Sprayberry] was that we didn’t think we could stop them,” said Lindsey, who moved to Georgia after serving as offensive coordinator at Hoover High in Alabama. “We just wanted to limit their number of big plays and match what we could.”

Lassiter’s dominance flirted with disaster at moments. Despite the aerial assault, the Trojans couldn’t put Sprayberry away in the first half. The Yellow Jackets could have cut the lead to one score just before the half.

The Trojans fumbled a punt on the 5 yard-line with two minutes remaining. Sprayberry couldn’t move the ball past the 2, however, going to the half down 28-13.

The Yellow Jackets (0-1) tacked on a pair of late scores via David Carter. The damage was already done.

“We think we can do this every week,” Mason said. “We’ve got playmakers. We saw that in practice. Seeing it out here is much more fun.”