Jacket defense rises up against Kell
For the 16th time in the past 17 years, the Calhoun High School football team is headed to the Elite Eight.
With a superlative defensive effort Friday night that saw the Yellow Jackets keep a Kell offense averaging 36 points a game in check all night long, the Swarm eliminated the Longhorns, 34-7 in a GHSA 5A second-round playoff contest at Phil Reeve Stadium in Gordon County.
The win sends the Yellow Jackets to the Elite Eight next Friday night against Ware County, which defeated spunky Chamblee, 24-7, in their playoff matchup Friday night. The Jackets defeated Ware County last year, 4942, in a second-round playoff thriller in South Georgia on their way to an appearance in the 5A championship game.
Calhoun, which has now won a season-high five straight games, set the tone for the evening on its first offensive and defensive series against Kell and then they got the special teams involved for a 10-0 advantage late in the first quarter that still stood at halftime.
The Yellow Jackets took the opening kickoff and marched the ball right down the field to score before Kell would have its first offensive play of the game.
Running 10 plays that included two short passes, the Jackets got a fun night
going by moving 64 yards in three-and-a-half minutes with sophomore Emaree Winston scoring the game’s first touchdown on a fouryard blast. Sophomore Carlos Lopez added the first of his four extra-point kicks and Calhoun was up 7-0 with 8:28 left in the first period.
From there, the Longhorns just couldn’t get anything going until late in the first half against Calhoun’s stingy defense. In fact, Kell’s first four offensive possessions ended in punts with the second one blocked, resulting in a short field for a Calhoun field goal.
Their fifth and final possession of the half was a great drive from their own 11 to
the Calhoun 19 that ended when Jacket defensive end Montaze Byrd recovered a fumble in the Red Zone with just 30 seconds left in the first half.
On the play prior to the lost fumble, the Longhorns did appear to get a touchdown on a 19-yard pass, but were called for holding to nullify the score
After that opening Calhoun touchdown, the Yellow Jackets got their final points of the half when Dustin Kerns blocked a punt and the home team was set up at the Kell 11-yard-line. They got to the Longhorns’ five, but could go no farther and sophomore Carlos Lopez came on to boot a 22-yard field goal
for the 10-0 advantage with 2:28 left in the first period.
In the second half, the Calhoun defense forced three turnovers and two of them lead directly to points.
The first was a Kaleb Ray interception on Kell’s third offensive play of the second half, giving the Yellow Jackets the football at their own 44-yard-line. Eight plays and 56 yards later, they opened the lead to 16-0 on a 15-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Trey Townsend to Kerns with 7:35 to play in the third. Lopez made another kick and Calhoun was up 17-zip.
That’s when the Longhorns used some trickeration to get on the board.
Fair catching the kickoff at their own 30, the Longhorns went to a halfback pass on first down with running back Elijah Washington catching a lateral and then firing a long spiral to Ryan Barrett for a 66-yard hookup that put the visitors at the Calhoun 4. On the next play, quarterback Davion Hampton went four yards for their only score of the night. They added the extra-point try to trail 17-7 with 7:17 showing in the third period.
The Longhorns then forced a Calhoun punt, but the Yellow Jacket defense got the Kell touchdown back when junior lineman Kristyanne Gregory picked a pass out of the air and sprinted 48 yards for the touchdown and a 24-7 margin with 3:42 to go in the third.
The next time Kell had the ball, they fumbled it away and Yellow Jacket senior linebacker Nathan Fuller fell
on it to put Calhoun at the visitors’ 10-yard-line. They again couldn’t punch it in, but Lopez made his second field goal of the game on a 26-yarder for a 27-7 Calhoun advantage with only 51 ticks left in the third.
The Jackets would score the game’s final points on their first ownership of the fourth quarter with Townsend finding senior wide receiver Cam Curtis for a 63-yard touchdown pass. Lopez finished the night 4-for-4 with his extra point kicks as the Calhoun fans began to celebrate.
Any comeback hopes that Kell may have had vanquished on their next series when Ray made his second interception of the game and the Yellow Jackets were able to run out the clock.
Calhoun improved to 9-3 on the season with the victory.
Kell closes the year with a 10-2 record.