Bowdon quarterback Kyler McGrinn didn’t quite make history, but he helped the Red Devils successfully defend their Class A Division II championship with a 28-27 win over Manchester on Monday.
McGrinn rushed 31 times for 221 yards and three touchdowns and completed 7 of 9 passes for 60 yards and one touchdown. He finished the season with 2,186 yards rushing and 33 touchdowns and 1,968 yards passing with 25 touchdowns, leaving him just shy of joining Troup’s Taeo Todd, the only Georgia player to throw for 2,000 yards and rush for 2,000 yards in the same season.
“It means a lot,” McGrinn said. “I go down in the history books, but it’s all about my team.”
The tightly contested game appeared to be headed for a tie when Manchester’s Darius Favors scored on a 4-yard run with 7:23 remaining to make it a one-point game. But officials called Manchester for an illegal block, negating Jack Underwood’s successful extra point.
The 15-yard penalty essentially turned the extra point into a 35-yard field goal. Manchester decided to run a fake field goal and the pass was unsuccessful. Bowdon was then able to run out the clock.
No. 5-ranked Bowdon (13-2) was able to accumulate 342 total yards and control the ball for 30:09 minutes and avenge its season-opening loss to Manchester.
“We basically rode (McGrinn) and our offensive line again and it turned out pretty well for us,” Bowdon coach Richard Fendley said.
No. 2 Manchester (11-3) was led by Qua Cooper, who ran 14 times for 80 yards, one touchdown and eight tackles, and Darius Favors, who rushed 14 times for 76 yards and one touchdown and had seen tackles. Manchester was playing under the emotional stress caused by the death of sophomore defensive lineman Brandon Smith on the eve of the title game.
Bowdon took the opening possession and drove 73 yards in 18 plays, eating 9:07 off the clock, to score on McGrinn’s 1-yard run. The Red Devils got the ball back when JaMichael Jones recovered a fumbled pitch and scored on the next play when McGrinn fired a 22-yard touchdown pass to Kaiden Prothro, giving them a 14-0 lead after one quarter.
Manchester emerged from its fog to score three unanswered touchdowns. The Blue Devils cut the lead to 14-7 when Jayden Terry caught a 28-yard pass from Daryus Bryant, then tied it on a 9-yard run by Qua Cooper after Terry intercepted a pass and returned it to the 26. Manchester took its first lead when Terry hauled in a 55-yard touchdown pass from Bryant.
Bowdon tied the game 21-21 with 1:23 left in the half on McGrinn’s 1-yard run, two plays after he escaped down the sideline for a 48-yard run.
