Jackets pull away in 2nd half to clinch subregion
After slow start, Calhoun shuts down Devils to earn home victory
After a big win over Sonoraville last week, Calhoun Coach Hal Lamb said he thought his team might start slow against Bremen on Friday night. He was right, but Calhoun eventually settled down and beat the Blue Devils 46-21 on Senior Night at Phil Reeve Stadium.
With the victory Calhoun moved to 8-2 overall on the season and 4-0 in Region 6-AAA South. Bremen fell to 5-4 on the season and moved their region record to .500 at 2-2.
Even in the loss, the Blue Devils showed they have a solid team. That fact became evident when Bremen’s Wade O’Neal returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. Calhoun responded a little over a minute later when Yellow Jacket receiver Rhett Abernathy took a reverse handoff and sprinted 41 yards down the left side of the field for a touchdown.
However, Bremen was not going to be undone as star running back, Division-I college prospect and Mr. Everything for the Blue Devils Kyle Bailey took a pitch on a halfback option, stopped and threw the ball to a wide open Jalen Dallas over the middle who took it to the house for a 59-yard score. That was the longest passing play of the night for either team.
Bailey was the focal point of the Bremen side as he bulldozed his way for 73 yards rushing and also contributed in the passing game and on defense. His team had a chance to go up by two possessions soon afterwards after the defense picked off a pass in Calhoun territory on the Yellow Jackets’ subsequent drive. However, the Jackets defense held, and Bremen was forced to kick a 36-yard field goal, which they missed.
Calhoun answered back with a score near the end of the first quarter via a 13-yard touchdown pass from Baylon Spector (who wore No. 2 to honor his injured teammate Olico Dennis) to Jevard Williams on a well-executed fade route. The quarter ended with both teams having 14 points.
The Yellow Jackets’ defense really started to step up as they forced a three-and-out from Bremen on the next drive. Calhoun’s offense took advantage of the stop and promptly put points on the board. Quarterback Gavin Gray threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Malik Lawrence. (Gray and Spector rotated at quarterback and Spector also shifted to running back as well.)
Bremen answered back with 6:02 left in the first half as Bailey ran it into the end zone from four yards out. Less than half a minute later, Calhoun’s Gray threw a 38-yard scoring strike to Bryson Davis. Then, with seconds left on the clock, Spector scored a twoyard touchdown run on a quarterback draw. The following extra point was no good, but Calhoun took a 34-21 lead going into halftime.
The second half was one of total domination from the Jackets. They scored two touchdowns and held the Blue Devils to zero. On the first touchdown, Gray threw a pass to Ryan Randall who tiptoed into the end zone from nine yards out. The final score was a four-yard touchdown run by Spector.
Gray and Spector’s outstanding offensive play was a big reason for the Jackets’ success on Friday night. Gray went 13-of-21 through the air for 219 yards and three touchdowns. Spector accounted for 121 all-purpose yards and three scores.
Lamb said he was pleased with how his team bounced back from their slow start to pull away for the subregion-clinching win.
“I thought we came out a little flat, but I kind of expected that a little bit because of the big, emotional win we had last week,” said Lamb. It took us a while to get going, but Bremen is a good football team, and I told the kids that. The bottom line is we won 46-21. It was a great football game, and I thought our kids played extremely well. We’ve got to get better if we want to make a run in the state playoffs, but hopefully we’ll get better in the next couple of weeks.”
Calhoun finishes first in their subregion and will play the No. 4 seed in the Region 6-AAA North subregion LFO in a region play-in game next Friday night. With a victory, the Jackets would clinch their 16th straight region title.