Ringgold rally falls short as Heritage wraps county sweep
The Heritage Generals held off a fourth-quarter charge by Ringgold to post a 28-21 win in their annual grudge match at Don Patterson Field on Friday night.
Heritage had more than triple the yardage of Ringgold in the opening half, but only held a seven-point lead at halftime.
Cade Kiniry caught an 18yard scoring pass from Nick Hanson to open the scoring for the Generals with 1:05 left in the opening stanza and Ryan Heet capped an 89-yard drive as he caught a 27-yard strike from Hanson with just 33 seconds left before intermission.
Ringgold’s only score in the first half came on the defensive side of the ball as Kori Dumas corralled a deflected pass and returned it 43 yards for a pick-six with 6:57 left in the second quarter that briefly tied the game at 7-7.
The Generals would tack on two more touchdowns in the third quarter.
With just under five minutes left in the period, Hanson lofted a nice touch pass over a pair of defenders and into the arms of a leaping Logan Lowe for a 20-yard score. Then, less than a minute later and after a long Ringgold touchdown was nullified by a penalty, Kaden Swope intercepted a pass and returned it 53 yards for a score to make it 28-7 in favor of the boys from Boynton.
However, the Tigers were far from finished.
Dumas scored his second TD of the night, this time on offense, as he took a direct snap out of the wildcat formation and got the ball across the goal line from two yards out with 8:25 to play. Ringgold would use a late 89-yard drive to cut further into the lead as Kyle White connected with Malachi Hill on a 20-yard TD pass to slice the gap to seven with 46 seconds remaining.
The Tigers would then get the home crowd to its collective feet again as they recovered the ensuing onside kick. However, Dylan Bryan would
pick off a pass on the very next play to seal the victory for the Navy-and-Red.
Heritage ended with 315 total yards, 220 through the air on 20 of 30 passing by Hanson, who countered two interceptions with his three TD tosses. Six different receivers caught at least one pass with Kiniry leading the way with five catches for 59 yards. Paxton McCrary rushed 16 times for 101 yards and Jonathan Washburn added a sack on defense.
Ringgold rallied to put up 285 total yards of offense as White went 16 of 24 for 220 yards, one TD and two picks. Hill had a career-night as the junior hauled in seven passes for 130 yards. Dumas
led the ground game with 39 yards on eight carries and added a 31-yard reception. Cole Carlock recorded a sack for the Tigers.
The Generals also enjoyed a nice advantage on third-down conversions, making it 7 of 14 times to just 1 of 11 for the home team, although Ringgold was 2 of 3 on fourth-down tries.
Heritage (2-0) will host Temple this Friday. The Class AA Tigers are out to a 2-0 start themselves after wins over Bowdon (16-12) and Central-Carroll (14-7). It will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
Meanwhile, Ringgold (0-1) will travel to Ridgeland to take on the Panthers, who are 0-2 after losses to Rabun County (35-0) and Dalton (52-7). It will mark the first game between the former region rivals since 2011.