Kell was the only Cobb County public school that had to play during the school system’s fall break, so the Longhorns made quick work of visiting East Paulding on Friday and headed into their own bye week their unbeaten region record intact.
Quarterback John Lampley was an efficient 11-for-16 passing for 215 yards and a touchdown, and Zane Williams scored two touchdowns on big plays to lead the Longhorns to a 37-3 victory
The win, combined with Rome’s 45-28 victory over third-ranked Carrollton, left the Longhorns (5-1, 4-0) as the only remaining undefeated team in 7-AAAAA play. Fourth-ranked Kell will play Villa Rica on Oct. 14 before traveling to Carrollton the following week. East Paulding dropped to 0-5 for the first time since 2003 and is 0-3 in region play.
Kell led 16-3 at halftime and broke the game open with three touchdowns in the first 13 minutes of the second half. Williams provided the final knockout punch with a 53-yard punt return for a touchdown on the third play of the fourth quarter. The Longhorns have scored at least one touchdown on defense or special teams in every game this season. Kell got third-quarter touchdowns on a 21-yard pass from receiver Josh Blancato to Michael Luckie and a 1-yard run by Dre Houston.
Williams also scored the first points of the game, catching a short pass from Lampley and taking it 61 yards for a score. He finished with five catches for 104 yards.
“I felt like we got off to a little slow start to the game,” Kell coach Derek Cook said. “We gave them a couple of extra possessions. We only had 19 plays in the first half, and we had 19 in the third quarter. We did the things we needed to do in the second half, eliminated some of the mistakes, and obviously put a lot of points on the board that allowed us to pull away.”
Kell scored on its first three possessions of the game to take a 16-0 lead midway through the second quarter. The Longhorns got all the points they needed on their fifth offensive play on Williams’ touchdown reception. Connor Mendelson kicked a 32-yard field goal for a 9-0 lead with 1:55 to play in the first quarter, and Josiah Futral scored on a 1-yard run with 5:32 remaining in the half to complete a five-play, 42-yard drive. Lampley teamed up with Williams on a 27-yard pass on the first play of the drive that moved the Longhorns to the East Paulding 15-yard line.
East Paulding was able to keep it close by controlling the ball for much of the second quarter, running 19 plays to just eight for Kell, but the Raiders were unable to break through until Delvin Dolph kicked a 22-yard field goal on the final play of the half to cut the lead to 16-3. Quarterback Dylan Prater’s 52-yard run got the Raiders into scoring position.
Prather provided most of the Raiders’ offense. Although he was just 5-for-13 passing for 30 yards, he had 23 carries for 90 yards rushing, a number that was deceptively low because of 39 yards in losses from four sacks. East Paulding finished with 141 yards of total offense, while Kell had 271.
East Paulding – 0-3-0-0 – 3
Kell – 9-7-14-7 – 37
K – Zane Williams 61 pass from John Lampley (pass failed)
K – Connor Mendelson 32 field goal
K – Josiah Futral 1 run (Mendelson kick)
E – Devlin Dolph 22 field goal
K – Michael Luckie 21 pass from Josh Blancato (Mendelson kick)
K – Dre Houston 1 run (Mendelson kick)
K – Williams 53 punt return (Mendelson kick)
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