The fire and passion of Colquitt County head coach Rush Propst is known worldwide.
But with his team trailing 14-10 at halftime to Grayson, after two quarters where his offense managed just 77 yards and five first downs, he went the genteel route with his locker room speech.
The Packers (6-0) and ranked No. 1 in Class AAAAAAA, responded to the kinder, gentler approach, shutting out the Rams in the second half while scoring 16 points of their own to take a 26-14 win and ruin homecoming for Grayson (3-2), ranked No. 3.
“I think resiliency was the key,” Propst said afterward. “I felt like in the first half we got hit in the mouth. No one was screaming or yelling [at halftime]. We just went in and made some adjustments. We were struggling with some of our blocking assignments, and I said we were going to have to come out and win an ugly second half. Defense balled all night and I’m proud of how we responded.”
On the other side, Grayson head coach Christian Hunnicutt was disappointed in his team’s offensive performance.
“We have to go back to the drawing board and find out who we are offensively,” he said. “We can’t sustain drives. Other than a big run and a play we drew up in the dirt, we can’t get into any sort of rhythm. Our defensive group has really settled in, and Colquitt is a very good defensive team. But on offense it’s almost like we have to go back to the beginning and figure out what we can do. We just don’t have any consistency there.”
Grayson struck first with a big assist from its defense. The Rams sacked Jaycee Harden and forced a fumble that they recovered at the Colquitt 35-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, J’Kori Jones hit tight end Zach Bush up the far seam for a touchdown to put Grayson up 7-0.
Colquitt moved the ball on its next possession and marched deep into Grayson territory after a roughing penalty on the Packers’ punter kept the drive alive. But the Ram defense stiffened and Ryan Fitzgerald missed a 35-yard field goal to keep Colquitt scoreless heading into the second quarter.
Early in the period it appeared as if Grayson might go up two scores after the Rams took over possession at the Packer 35-yard line following a short punt by Colquitt. But linebacker Camari Lewis made a leaping interception at his team’s 20-yard line and returned it all the way down to the Grayson 15-yard line.
Again, Grayson’s defense bowed up as Colquitt lost a yard on three plays. But this time Fitzgerald drilled a 35-yard field goal to close the gap to 7-3 midway through the quarter.
The Rams pushed the lead to 14-3 with a little over three minutes left before halftime when on third-and-one from the Colquitt 31-yard line, sophomore running back Phil Mafah took a dive play through the middle of the line and sprinted to the end zone.
But Colquitt answered immediately. Junior Montavious Ponder fielded the ensuing kickoff at his 2-yard line, darted through a seam up the middle, cut to his right and outran the rest of the Grayson coverage team down the near sideline for a 98-yard touchdown return to make the halftime score 14-10.
Unlike the start of the game, Colquitt’s offense got going early in the second half thanks to a couple of big plays on the Packers’ first two possessions. Ty Leggett’s 51-yard run on Colquitt’s first drive moved the ball to the Grayson 8-yard line. But a procedure penalty, a bad snap and a negative running play forced the Packers to settle for a 23-yard field goal by Fitzgerald to narrow the gap to 14-13.
Colquitt’s defense got the ball back for the Packers when Nyquann Washington picked off an overthrown ball by Jones in the near flat, to set up Colquitt on its 35-yard line. On the second play of the drive, Harden threw a near-perfect ball to Ja’Naz Graves, who had a step on two Grayson defenders down the far sideline. The play was good for 50 yards to the Ram 5-yard line. Two plays later Leggett bulldozed his way in from 2-yards out to give Colquitt its first lead of the game, 19-14, heading into the fourth quarter after the Packers misfired on the two-point conversion pass.
After the Colquitt defense forced a three-and-out, the Packer offense scored for the third time in as many possessions in the second half and put the game away when Leggett sped around the left side and outran the Grayson secondary for a 43-yard touchdown for the game’s final points.
For Colquitt, it was the Packers’ six win over a top-10 opponent this season.
“Our kids have been here before,” Propst said. “They always know they’re never out of it.”
