The first half of the Cedar Grove-North Hall game in Round 2 of the Class AAA playoffs was just like the stands at Buck Godfrey Stadium.
One-sided.
But North Hall wouldn’t quit and feasted on the Saints’ subs in the second half to produce a final score that wasn’t quite indicative of the game: Cedar Grove 49, North Hall 33. The Saints led 35-3 at the half.
Though he watched his team get outscored 30-14 in the second half, Cedar Grove head coach Jimmy Smith said he was never tempted to reinsert his starters. Not even a little bit.
“No, I learned that lesson last year when I put a kid back in and he got banged up,” Smith said. “Just like your players learn lessons, coaches learn lessons, too.”
Smith said the lesson he hopes his younger players learned from the second-round playoff victory could be summed up in just two words: Pay attention.
“You have to pay attention so that you will be ready when it’s your time to play,” Smith said. “Pay attention in practice and in the games.”
The way things went in the first half, the Saints younger players should have known they would be called upon to close out the win in the second half. Cedar Grove (11-1), the four-time Region 5AAA champs, took advantage of four Trojan turnovers in the first two quarters of play.
Senior RB Robert “Pop” Jones scored two touchdowns (runs of 16 and 3 yards), senior WR/QB Kendall Boney (3-yard run), sophomore QB Austin Smith (1-yard run) and freshman WR Rashod Dubinion (4-yard run) scored one apiece. The Saints rolled up 171 yards rushing and 57 through the air in the first half.
North Hall (9-3), the No. 3 seed from Region 7AAA, got a 22-yard field goal by junior Erin Sanchez. The Trojans vaunted rushing attack, which had been averaging a little more than 300 yards per game, could manage only 35 in the first half against a Saint defense that had yielded a total of just 16 points during the seven previous games Cedar Grove had played prior to Friday night.
The now eight-game winning streak for Cedar Grove started after the Saints lost 24-17 to Class AAAAAAA McEachern back in September, the week prior to the start of region play.
“Sometimes you have to get thumped in the head to get focused,” Smith said. “It’s so hard to keep your kids focused these days with social media and aunts, uncles and cousins who all know football telling you things. I think [the loss] got us focused.”
North Hall’s second half performance was punctuated by a 70-yard touchdown run by junior RB Daniel Jackson, the Trojans’ leading rusher who eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark this season.
Jackson is one of several starters who will be back next season for head coach David Bishop. After starting last season 0-4, the Trojans are 13-6 since. This was their deepest run in the playoffs since 2012.
“We have a quote in our weight room that says ‘Trojans are winners, and winners don’t quit’. That’s us,” Bishop said. “Our program is built on character and we’re always going to fight. I was proud of our effort.
“Hats off to coach [Smith] and his staff and his players,” Bishop said. “They have a talented, well-coached team. If you’re going to get beat, get beat by a talented and disciplined team and that’s who we faced tonight.”
Cedar Grove will move into the quarterfinals for the third consecutive season when the Saints face the Benedictine/Westside-Macon winner.
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