North Cobb forced a punt after three plays on Colquitt County’s opening possession of their second-round Class AAAAAA playoff game Friday.
The next time the Warriors made a stop, they trailed 38-0. And that stop came only when visiting Colquitt County took a knee as the clock ran out at the end of the second quarter.
The Packers scored on six consecutive possessions in the first half and rolled to a 52-6 victory in a game played with a running clock in the third and fourth quarters. Third-ranked Colquitt County (10-2) advances to the quarterfinals for the fifth consecutive season and will play Dacula next weekend at a site to be determined by a coin flip, as both teams are No. 2 seeds.
No. 10-ranked North Cobb, the Region 4-AAAAAA champion, finished the year 9-3.
Sihiem King rushed for 179 yards and had touchdown runs of 39, 1 and 21 yards. King, the leading rusher in Region 1-AAAAAA, did not play in the second half.
King’s 39-yard run on the Packers’ second possession gave them a 7-0 lead with 7:13 to play in the first quarter. It was 14-0 four minutes later when King scored on a 1-yard run on the next possession. The game quickly got out of hand from there.
Colquitt’s Tim Sanders had 90 yards rushing and scored on runs of 4 and 51 yards. Rafael Merritt had an 88-yard run, scored a 1-yard touchdown and finished with 97 yards on the ground.
Quarterback Daniel Mobley completed his first seven passes and finished 7-for-8 for 107 yards. The Packers did not throw a pass in the second half.
North Cobb’s struggles weren’t limited to defense. A Warriors’ offense that features a 2,000-yard passer in Tyler Queen and a 1,000-yard rusher in J’Vonte Herrod managed just 77 yards in the first half, including only one rushing.
North Cobb didn’t get a first down until its fifth possession, at which point it trailed 21-0. Queen threw three first-half interceptions, all of which Colquitt County turned into touchdowns.
Queen finished with 184 yards passing, but Colquitt County outgained the Warriors 505-212 for the game. North Cobb rushed for just 28 yards, and the Warriors’ only points came on a 39-yard pass from Queen to Drew Techman with 1:20 to play.
