‘Team effort’ sends Tigers to Thomson for Round 2
Ringgold gets first playoff win since 2013
Playoff games are often won by the team that makes the most big plays and that was certainly the case for the Ringgold Tigers this past Friday night.
The Tigers made huge plays all night, along with some enormous ones in an action-packed fourth quarter, and moved on to the second round for the first time since 2013 with a 30-21 victory over Hart County at raucous and jam-packed Don Patterson Field.
Big plays in all three phases of the game, plus some outstanding offensive line play, combined for a victory that can only be termed a true team effort against an outstanding Bulldog team that had been ranked in the top 10 of Class AAA for most of the season.
“It really was (a team effort),” said Ringgold head coach Robert Akins. “Our kids stepped up and they’ve done that all year. It’s just a great group of kids who fight to the very end and they don’t ever give up. When you’ve got that type of team and the coaches are all dedicated and everybody puts the time in, anything can happen.”
Kicker Landon Eaker, who had a huge night with three field goals, two extra points and touchbacks on five of six kickoffs, staked Ringgold to a 3-0 lead at the 5:42 mark of the first quarter after a 42-yard field goal on Ringgold’s first possession.
Then, after the defense forced a three-and-out, quarterback Mason Parker connected with receiver Ty
Gilbert on an outstanding over-theshoulder pass and catch for 33 yards and Parker capped the four-play drive with a 15-yard scoring run to make it 10-0 with 2:54 left in the first quarter.
Early in the second, the Tigers drove the ball from their own 1-yard line all the way the Hart County 22, only to lose it on a fumble. The Bulldogs responded by driving 78 yards
in 11 plays before quarterback Austen Whitworth found Malachi Kelley on a 3-yard TD pass. A missed extra point kept Ringgold’s lead at four.
It appeared as though the Tigers would take that four-point advantage into the locker room. But on the final play of the first half, Paul Davis
outjumped the Ringgold secondary in the end zone and stunned and silenced the home crowd with a 47-yard Hail Mary touchdown grab. A twopoint conversion would give Hart County a 14-10 lead at intermission.
Ringgold refused to panic. The Tigers opened the third quarter by answering the Bulldogs’ touchdown with a 55-yard scoring strike from Parker to Peyton Williams to put Ringgold back in front.
However, that lead would be short-lived as the Bulldogs marched 80 yards on an impressive 14-play drive that took 5:30 off the clock. J.L. Lackey, the Bulldogs’ backfield battering ram, plowed in from three yards out and the extra point would give the visitors from Hartwell a 21-17 lead with 4:28 left in the third.
But once again, Ringgold had an answer in the form of an eight-play march that
included a big 40-yard run by Kori Dumas on fourthand-one from the Tigers’ 38-yard line.
The drive would stall out just shy of the red zone, but Eaker came through with a career-long 48-yard field goal that stayed just inside the left upright and the Hart County lead was down to 21-20 on the opening play of the fourth period.
The first of three massive defensive plays by Ringgold occurred just two plays later as Dumas batted a Whitworth pass into the air, while defensive end Brandon Orman made a diving interception at the Hart County 13-yard line.
The Bulldogs bowed their necks and held the Tigers to a 25-yard Eaker field goal, but the kick regained a 2321 lead for Ringgold with 9:12 remaining.
Hart County’s ensuing possession saw the offense move the ball from its own 7-yard line out toward midfield. But defensive back Marcus Fortson, who broke up a potential touchdown
pass earlier in the series, made a diving interception at the Ringgold 39 with just under six minutes to play.
Looking to possibly put the game away with a touchdown, Ringgold drove inside the Bulldogs’ 10-yard line. However, a fumble recovery would give the visitors new life, down by just two points with 2:39 to play.
They would pick up an initial first down out to the 29, but on the very next play, Kelley hauled in a pass over the middle a split second before Ringgold safety Kyle White lowered the proverbial boom. The ball popped free from Kelley’s hands on the crunching hit and into the waiting arms of linebacker Coleton Carlock and Ringgold’s offense was back in business at 27-yard line with 1:45 remaining.
Facing fourth-and-seven at the 24-yard line with less than a minute to play, Ringgold turned to Dumas in hopes of picking up the necessary yardage for a first down that would seal the win.
But instead of just seven
yards, Dumas got all 24.
With the offensive line plowing the field in front of him, the senior broke free of an arm tackle at the 15 and put an exclamation point on the victory as the home side of the stadium erupted in celebration.
The defense finished things off in style one play later as Bryson Bethune came up with Ringgold’s third interception of the second half and Parker took a final knee to run out the clock.
“We didn’t get any turnovers (on defense) last week and that really hurt us,” Akins said of his team’s 18-6 loss at Rockmart in the region championship game. “Our defense always seems to come up with with turnovers and they did tonight in crucial times. That was really the difference of the game, plus our offense really did an exceptional job tonight.
“It’s big and this group deserves it for sure. It’s a great group of kids. We’ll enjoy this for a night and then put it behind us and get ready for next week.”
Ringgold finished the night with 275 yards rushing on 38 carries. After being limited to 23 yards on six attempts in the first half, Dumas finished the game with 148 yards on 19 carries, while Williams added 37 yards on six carries to go with his touchdown catch.
Parker had an efficient 10 of 17 performance for 126 yards, while adding 84 yards on 12 carries. Gilbert and White each caught a team-high three passes as the Tigers finished with 401 yards of offense.
Orman had one of his best nights as a Tiger, finishing with five tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage to go with his game-turning interception. The defense limited Lackey to 116 yards on 26 carries after the imposing running back came into the game averaging over 200 yards in six games played this season.
Nomi Moore, who was 60 yards shy of 1,000 yards rushing coming into the game, was held to just eight yards on three carries. Whitworth
was 19 of 30 for 236 yards, while Kelley led the Bulldogs (8-3) with seven catches for 88 yards.
Ringgold (10-1) will load up the buses this Friday for a lengthy drive to Thomson. The Region 4 champion Bulldogs (10-0) narrowly avoided a huge upset and got past Region 2 No. 4 seed Jackson, 21-20.
The winner of that game will take on either Region 1 runner-up Appling County (10-1) or Region 7 champion Cherokee Bluff (11-0) in the state quarterfinals.
Ringgold was also the only team from Region 6 to advance past the first round.
Fourth-seeded North Murray endured a 58-14 drubbing at the hands of top-ranked and Region 8 champion Monroe Area. Third-seeded Adairsville nearly pulled the upset, but ultimately dropped a 29-22 decision at secondranked Oconee County, the Region 8 runner-up, while Region 8 No. 4 seed Stephens County went on the road and shocked Region 6 champion Rockmart, 27-13.