Cedartown tops Pepperell on the road to win out over Dragons with late pick
CEDARTOWN — The Pepperell Dragons had one last chance to score with only seconds left on the clock, and quarterback Trevor Thomas put up a pass in hopes of hitting one of his receivers.
Instead, Cedartown’s (3-1) Calvin Ragsdale grabbed one last turnover for the night, and with 1 second left on the clock sealed the Bulldog’s 20-16 win in their first home game of the season.
Head coach Scott Hendrix said his Bulldogs came up with big defensive plays when needed near the end of the game.
“We were lucky enough to make the plays and come out on top,” Hendrix said. “When you look at tape, there’s probably 20 plays that could make the game go either way.”
The Bulldogs ended the night with 342 yards overall.
Pepperell (1-1) head coach Rick Hurst said the game came down to one fact, at least for his team: The Dragons did this to themselves in the final quarter.
“I can handle losing, but I just don’t like it when we beat ourselves,” Hurst said. “We’ve got to learn from this. We didn’t turn it over the entire scrimmage, and really didn’t turn it over last week. Tonight is the first time we put it on the ground, and it’s cost us.”
Thomas’ interception was the second turnover of the fourth quarter the Bulldog’s were able to capitalize on.
Cedartown’s Tony Mathis grabbed a fumble recovery giving Cedartown the opportunity to drive and go ahead by four.
The failed two-point conversion attempt ended with a interception in the end zone that was picked off by Conner Chandler.
“We had a couple of good drives, and the offensive line stood up and did a pretty good job in the second half of controlling the line of scrimmage,” Hendrix said. “I just can’t say enough of how proud I am of our kids.”
Pepperell and Cedartown traded scores early in a game that saw the Dragons pile up 235 yards of offense overall.
The Dragons drew blood early on first quarter score by Tae Hammond on a 3½-yard carry that capped a 74yard drive, but not before Cedartown responded with a Trevon Wofford hitting Keyshon Kent for a 30-yard touchdown.
Pepperell regained the lead briefly off a Thomas 1-yard run for a touchdown, but then the Bulldogs recovered and grabbed another touchdown off of a Wofford quarterback keeper over the goal line.
The Dragons ended up with a third quarter lead later off a Ramiro Alanis 42-yard field goal, but gave up the lead late in the fourth on a 1-yard touchdown run by Wofford again for the win.
“If we do what we’re supposed to, we’ll do just fine,” Hurst said. “But you can’t have mistakes like this if you want to win. If you let teams like that hang around, they’re going to beat you. We’ve got to play better, especially in the red zone.”
Cedartown will have Friday off and an extra week to prepare for their upcoming home game against Cartersville.
“We’re looking forward to that,” Hendrix said. “They’ve got a great program and they’ll be here, so it should be a great atmosphere.”
The Bulldogs, now 3-1, have already improved upon where they stood this time last year, when after a first round loss to Oconee County finished the season at 2-9. Heading into the fifth week of the season in 2015, the Bulldogs were 0-4.