Blue Devils exorcise 22-year drought to Shaw

There were four region matchups out of Region 1-AAAA on Friday. Americus-Sumter ended a four-game losing streak to Westover with a cozy 21-6 victory in its region opener. Carver-Columbus moved to 7-0 all-time against Northside-Columbus by scoring a 37-17 victory over the Patriots. Cairo followed up last Friday’s 17-14 road victory over Bainbridge with a dominant 46-13 performance against Hardaway to tab its first region victory. The most significant victory, however came with Columbus finally finding the win column against Shaw for the first time since 1994.

Columbus snapped its 19-game losing streak to rival Shaw with a 46-26 victory Friday night. Shaw led 18-16 at the half, before Columbus outscored the Raiders 30-8 in the second half. Terrance Dixon helped spark the comeback and runaway win with a 100-yard rushing performance in the second half. The explosive 5-foot-7 senior finished the game with 109 yards off of seven touches to go with his 77-yard touchdown run that sparked the second half scoring. Patrick Kitchens was a major factor in special teams and avoiding empty possessions. The senior kicked a 39-yard field goal at the buzzer at the end of the half and added a 45-yard field goal with :41 seconds left in the third quarter to increase the lead to 26-18. Columbus got it done in all three phases of the game as Mark Anthony-Dixon housed a 92-yard kickoff return touchdown on the opening kickoff and Tavian Edwards scooped and scored on a 23-yard fumble recovery in the fourth quarter.

A dominant Week 5 performance came with Woodward Academy’s 32-0 blowout over Marist. Woodward Academy stormed to an 18-0 lead in the first quarter after three failed PAT tries and added touchdowns in the second and third quarter. Quarterback Ryan Glover threw touchdown passes to four different receivers and Jalen Polk ran in a first quarter touchdown from the 1-yard line.