South Georgia team’s upset as 29-point underdog earns Team of the Week honor
To be fair, the Maxwell Ratings’ projection was looking good at halftime last week. Cairo, a 29-point favorite, led Dougherty 16-0 after two quarters.
Dougherty coach Uyl Joyner’s halftime message: “I always tell them, we score in bunches. So once we get going, we’re going to get going.”
Dougherty came back to win 26-23, scoring last on Christian Hernandez’s 39-yard field goal in the final seconds.
“When that field goal went through, I was still kind of waiting on the referees,” Joyner told AJC Varsity. “I was like, ‘Hey, let me see these hands go up before I start celebrating.’ I saw the one on that side, and when his hands went up, I went and ran on the field, and it was just a great feeling, man.”
It was Dougherty’s first victory over a top-five opponent since 2005. Using Maxwell’s retroactive margin-of-victory projections since 1948, it was the biggest upset in school history.
“Everybody said we were going to lose 29-0,” Dougherty wide receiver David Burgess, who had two TD receptions, told the Albany Herald. “Go look at that scoreboard.”
Dougherty — now in first place in Region 1-4A — is the AJC Varsity/GHSF Daily Team of the Week.