Kell clinches region title behind running back Gipson’s 4-touchdown night
Ninth-ranked Kell kept scoring after the initial flurry, and No. 8 Cambridge couldn’t keep up.
Junior Moonie Gipson led the way for Kell, rushing for 235 yards and four touchdowns on 21 carries in a 45-18 victory that clinched the Region 6-4A championship — the Longhorns’ second region title in three years.
Kell completed the regular season 8-2 overall and 4-0 in the region and will next play in the first round of the playoffs Nov. 14 against the third-place team from Region 2, an opponent that won’t be determined until the completion of next weekend’s game.
Gipson scored on runs of 14 and 60 yards on Kell’s first two possessions, giving the Longhorns a 14-3 lead less than a minute into the second quarter. Cambridge closed the gap to 14-10 on a 5-yard touchdown run by Brooks Malone, but Kell answered on its next possession when Kaleb Narcisse threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Brayden Rouse to restore the lead to 11 points.
The Longhorns pulled away from there. Fernando Tavares kicked a 27-yard field goal on the final play of the first half, and Gipson had a 54-yard touchdown run on the sixth play of the third quarter for a 38-10 lead.
Gipson’s season-high 235 yards put him over 1,400 for the season, with a career-best 19 rushing touchdowns.
“Moonie did a great job, but the offensive line paved the way for him,” Kell coach Bobby May said. “All week we told them it was going to be on them, on the offensive line, and obviously Moonie’s a great player.”
Kell finished with 549 yards of total offense and limited Cambridge to 200. Narcisse was 9-of-11 passing for 114 yards, 99 of which came in the first half, and rushed for 61 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. Donte Grant had 78 yards rushing on six carries, and Jacob Carroll carried eight times for 40 yards.
Cambridge quarterback Connor Langford, who came into the game ranked No. 6 in the state with 2,038 yards passing, was held to 12-of-25 passing for 114 yards. Wide receiver Craig Dandridge, an AJC Super 11 pick and Georgia commitment who was playing with future coach Kirby Smart in attendance, had four catches for 51 yards and caught a two-point conversion pass. Dandridge had 929 receiving yards in his first eight games, fourth-best in the state. Malone rushed for 59 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries.
Kell started the season 4-2 against a challenging schedule that included three teams that could win region titles this year (Lowndes, Sequoyah and Columbia), then had to face defending 6-4A champion Blessed Trinity in the region opener.
Blessed Trinity was ranked No. 8 at the time, but Kell jump-started its title-winning run with a 3-0 victory. Lopsided victories over Westminster (49-0) and Centennial (55-20) followed, leading up to the clinching game against Cambridge.
“We schedule tough on purpose to prepare for tough games like this,” May said. “Cambridge is a really good team, but we prepared. The kids worked hard all summer, and they knew that we had a chance to do this. We’ve got a lot more that we want to accomplish, though.”
No. 10-ranked Blessed Trinity (6-3, 2-1) and Cambridge (7-2, 2-1) have clinched playoff berths in the five-team region and will meet next week in the regular-season finale, with the winner taking second place and the loser finishing third.
“Man, this feels great,” Gipson said. “Coming out of that win against Blessed Trinity, we knew we had to win it all. We were already here, so we might as well win it; that’s what we’ve been saying. We’re going to just keeping going and keep going, winning every week and taking it to the Benz (for the state championship game).”
Cambridge — 3-7-0-8 - 18
Kell — 7-17-7-14 - 45
First quarter
- K — Moonie Gipson 14 run (Fernando Tavares kick), 7:15
- C — Leo Attard 42 field goal, 2:23
Second quarter
- K — Gipson 60 run (Tavares kick), 11:09
- C — Brooks Malone 5 run (Attard kick), 9:57
- K — Brayden Rouse 9 pass from Kaleb Narcisse (Tavares kick), 5:13
- K — Tavares 27 field, goal, 0:00
Third quarter
- K — Gipson 54 run (Tavares kick), 9:21
Fourth quarter
- K — Gipson 12 run (Tavares kick), 11:15
- K — Narcisse 2 run (Tavares kick), 6:45
- C — Malone 2 run (Craig Dandridge pass from Marcus Turk), 4:29
About the Author
Chip Saye is a former writer and editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and remains a regular contributor to the AJC. In 2009 he helped start Georgia High School Football Daily. He previously worked for the Athens Banner-Herald, Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail and Gwinnett Daily News.
