When the first quarter ended with Stephenson leading by a touchdown, the game didn’t feel that close.
Very soon after, it wouldn’t be.
The Jaguars exploded for 34 points in the second quarter, combining big-play offense with suffocating defense and opportunistic special-teams play to overwhelm Druid Hills 54-20.
The second quarter began ominously for the Red Devils (4-3, 2-1 in Region 6-AAAAA), whose defense had held relatively firm in the opening stanza, when Stephenson’s Isaiah Zuber caught a 48-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dewann Ford on the first play of the quarter.
That began a furious stretch of scoring for Stephenson (5-2, 3-0), and it came in a variety of ways.
At 10:06, a Druid Hills fell on a fumbled snap in its end zone to give the Jaguars a safety and a 16-0 lead. On the ensuing kickoff, Dexter Neal circled to his left and glided easily through the Red Devils on the way to the end zone and a 23-0 lead.
At the end of the Red Devils’ next possession, Stephenson blocked their punt through the back of the end zone for another safety, bumping the score up to 25-0 with 7:08 left.
It took Stephenson until the 2:36 mark to get on the board again, with Cortese Logan taking a screen pass on third-and-13 for a score, putting the Jaguars up 31-0.
Following a Druid Hills fumble, Stephenson took just four more plays to get into the end zone again, this time on a 20-yard strike from Ford to Neal, making it 38-0.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Jags popped it up short, then fell on the ball at the Red Devils 33-yard line with 49.5 seconds left in the half.
It took them two plays to get to the 1-yard line, but coach Ron Gartrell decided to settle for a field goal as time expired, making the score 41-0 at halftime.
And when Zuber returned the opening kickoff of the second half 95 yards for a score, it was 48-0, and the Jaguars’ starters had the rest of the night off.
It was a well-earned break for a first unit that was utterly dominant up front against an outmanned Druid Hills offensive line.
“When you’ve got four guys like we’ve got, you’re supposed to do that,” Stephenson coach Ron Gartrell said, of his defensive line. “(Georgia commit) Chauncey Davis and (Georgia State commit) Drew Harris, those are D-I type guys. We’ve got some young guys in there too. If you can’t block us, it’s going to be hard to move the ball.”
Indeed, it was, as the Red Devils finished the first half with minus-26 total yards, all on the ground, and zero first downs. They were able to move the ball some after Stephenson’s starters left the game, but the Jags’ lead was too large.
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