Gainesville hammers Rome 37-6, clinches state championship berth

ROME — Gainesville’s winding playoff path is headed to the state championship after a 37-6 domination at Rome Thursday night.

The Red Elephants rolled out to a 24-0 halftime lead and never looked back. Gainesville running back Dwight Lewis led the attack with 20 rushes for 226 yards and three touchdowns.

The sophomore tallied 139 of those yards and two scores in the first half. Lewis filled in for 3-star running back Nigel Newkirk, who exited the game with an apparent lower body injury early in the first quarter.

Lewis silenced a rowdy Rome crowd with the first two touchdowns of the game.

“There wasn’t any panic,” Lewis said, describing the feeling when he saw Newkirk’s injury. “Nigel knows what I can do, the whole team knows what I can do, so they believed in me the whole way.

“They had no doubt. I had no doubt in my mind about what I could come out here and do and what my teammates could do for me.”

Lewis starred as Gainesville’s offense leaned on the run, but quarterback Kharim Hughley did his fair share of damage through the air when opportunities arose. The 4-star Clemson commitment was 6-of-15 passing for 141 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

Hughley also added a four-yard rushing touchdown.

“Just do what works,” Hughley said. “If the run game’s eating, keep handing the ball off, let’s go. Just let the strong hand feed us.”

The dominant run game appeared to open up the passing game later in the first half. A long Gainesville punt return put the offense on the Rome 46-yard line, looking to extend its 14-0 lead.

Hughley only needed one play to do it. He faked a handoff, rolled to his right and found a wide-open Cameron James, who trotted into the end zone.

Lewis ripped off his third and final touchdown from 56 yards out in the third quarter, and the Red Elephants outscored Rome 13-6 in the second half to seal the win.

Gainesville will face Thomas County Central, which beat Roswell 49-28 Thursday night, in the state championship. The Class 5A final will kick off at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

A state title would be a perfect end to a wacky postseason for Gainesville. The Red Elephants were unsure if they would even advance past the second round after a sidelines-clearing brawl canceled their second round game at Brunswick on Nov. 21.

Gainesville did advance, but not without massive losses. Nearly half of Gainesville’s roster was initially suspended by the GHSA before a superior court judge granted the school a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction, effectively reversing the suspensions for the postseason.

Gainesville eliminated top-ranked Hughes 40-32 last Friday in its first game since the Nov. 21 incident.

“Three weeks ago, we didn’t know really what was going on,” Gainesville coach Josh Niblett said. “We got back to some normalcy last week, and our kids locked in with a short week, six days.”

Niblett did have to change the practice schedule for the Thursday night game, as Gainesville only had one full contact practice this week.

“I challenged our front, and I said, ‘Look, if you’re going to win this game in the semifinal, you’ve got to win the run totals on both sides of the ball,’ and I think we did that tonight,” Niblett said.

The Red Elephants out-rushed the Wolves 299-28.

Gainesville is headed to its second state championship under Niblett. The Red Elephants lost 35-28 to Hughes in the state final in Niblett’s first season.