Gavin Hall threw three first-half touchdown passes and Harrison scored on its first six possessions to beat Dalton 42-21 in a battle of unbeaten, top-10 teams Friday night in Kennesaw.
Fourth-ranked Harrison (6-0, 4-0) moved into sole possession of first place in Region 6-AAAAAA, a half-game ahead of No. 6 Allatoona (3-1, 3-0), which had the week off. Seventh-ranked Dalton (4-1, 2-1) is in third place.
The question for Harrison appeared to be whether its defense could slow down Dalton’s Jahmyr Gibbs, a Georgia Tech-committed running back who came into the game as the state’s leading rusher with 1,144 yards (286 per game) and 23 touchdowns. The question now is whether anyone, in the regular season at least, can stop a Harrison offense that is clicking on all cylinders.
Gibbs had another big night, rushing for 223 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries, but he had 195 of those yards in the first half. He became less of a factor as Harrison’s 28-7 halftime lead grew to 42-7 early in the fourth quarter.
“The idea was to try to keep [Gibbs] off the field and try to keep scoring points so that they had to get out of their comfort zone,” Harrison coach Matt Dickmann said.
Harrison put up 509 yards of total offense against the Catamounts and scored at least 35 points for the sixth consecutive game. Hall was 9-of-16 passing for 225 yards, although he attempted just four passes in the second half with the Hoyas in control.
David Roberts rushed for 108 yards on 17 carries. Marques Owens had 130 yards and a touchdown on three receptions, including a spectacular one-handed catch for 48 yards on Harrison’s final touchdown drive of the first half.
Mason Babay had 60 receiving yards and two touchdowns on three catches and ran seven times for 51 yards. Malakai Taft had two catches for 27 yards and ran five times for 52 yards and a touchdown, and Charles Remy rushed for 42 yards on seven carries.
“I’ve told the kids before that we’ve made a lot of mental errors [this season]. It wasn’t physical stuff, it was all mental errors, stupid penalties.” Dickmann said. “I told them, ‘I’ve been doing this a long time, and if we can get this cleaned up, we’ll get on a roll.’ And tonight we really rolled. I don’t think we punted one time. It’s a good night when you don’t punt.”
The momentum took a turn in Harrison’s favor early. Led by Gibbs’ running, Dalton drove into Harrison territory on its first two possessions, once down to the 2-yard line, but the Harrison defense stopped the Catamounts on fourth-and-1 both times.
And the Hoyas took advantage. After the first stop, they drove 98 yards in 12 plays and took a 7-0 lead on Taft’s 10-yard touchdown run. The second answer came more quickly, as Hall completed a 58-yard touchdown pass to Owens on Harrison’s next play, making it 14-0 with 1:06 remaining in the first quarter.
Gibbs cut the lead to 14-7 with a 38-yard run on the second play of the second quarter, but the Hoyas pulled away from there.
Dalton didn’t force its first defensive stop until 8:02 remained in the game, when Harrison lost a fumble at the Catamounts’ 39-yard line.
Dalton trailed 42-7 with a little more than six minutes to play but got a 12-yard touchdown run and a 42-yard scoring pass from Ashton Blackwell to close the gap. Blackwell threw two incomplete passes in the first half but finished the night 8-of-14 for 127 yards.
“I think coach Dickmann would say that this is the best game they’ve played,” Dalton coach Matt Land said. “They played a great game, and my hat’s off to them. They got up for us. I really thought we were in a good place, and I still think we’re in a good place. Our guys came down here and fought hard. But at the end of the day, sometimes it’s just your day and sometimes it’s not.”
Dalton - 0-7-0-14 - 21
Harrison - 14-14-7-7 - 42
First quarter
H - Malakai Taft 10 run (Christian Lowery kick), 2:50
H - Marques Owens 58 pass from Gavin Hall (Lowery kick), 1:06
Second quarter
D - Jahmyr Gibbs 38 run (Pepe Lara kick), 11:15
H - Mason Babay 31 pass from Hall (Lowery kick), 8:42
H - Babay 6 pass from Hall (Lowery kick), 1:08
Third quarter
H - Marcus Bleazard 11 run (Lowery kick), 7:31
Fourth quarter
H - Brandon Godfrey 2 run (Lowery kick), 11:54
D - Ashton Blackwell 12 run (Lara kick), 6:20
D - Journey Boston 42 pass from Blackwell (Lara kick), 2:36
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