Darlington improves to 5-0 with 14-0 shutout against Coosa

In important games, every advantage counts.

And in the Region 7AA Championship game, Darlington ( 8- 1, 5- 0 region) held advantages in yards, turnovers and in the end, points, in a 140 win over Coosa (6-3, 4-1 region) Friday night at Chris Hunter Stadium.

“We were fortunate enough to come up with some plays and be able to fend them off,” Darlington head coach Tommy Atha said. “It was just a physical game, and I couldn’t be more happy and proud of a group of young men.”

For a while, it was a battle of the defenses, as neither team gave the other any breathing room on offense.

But Coosa blinked first and fumbled the ball on a bobbled snap at its own 38-yard line 26 seconds into the second quarter to give the Tigers their best field position of the night.

After taking a nine-yard sack by Coosa’s Bryson Lamboy, Darlington quarterback Hunter Manning dumped the ball to Landon Lawrence for a 26-yard catch and run to the Coosa 19 yard line. Tigers’ tailback Trey Edge finished off the drive three plays later with a six-yard run to put the Tigers on the board with 9:21 left in the half.

“On that drive, I feel like our line, they were blocking them pretty well,” Edge said. “The holes were open… and the touchdown was pretty wide open. I credit that to my line. That was big for us.”

Coosa’s Chris Marshall gave the Eagles’ life with 4:44 left in the half after intercepting Darlington’s Hunter Manning at the 38.

But Nile Houser responded in kind with a Tiger interception of his own in the end zone with 1:46 remaining in the second quarter to squash all hopes of a Coosa comeback before halftime.

Heading into the third quarter with a 7-0 deficit, Coosa attempted to reestablish its running game in the second half.

It worked early on, as the Eagles drove down to the Tiger six-yard line behind the legs of running back Justin Ware.

For the first time all night, Ware found running lanes for 53 yards on seven carries.

But when they needed it most, the Darlington defense stepped up in a big way.

On first and goal from their own six, the Tigers forced one short run and two incomplete passes to set up a short Coosa field goal.

And even then, the Tigers pounced to block the kick and keep the Eagles off the scoreboard.

That drive was the closest the Eagles would come to scoring the rest of the night, as the Tigers forced another punt and two more interceptions on Coosa’s final three drives.

“We didn’t do a good job of holding on to the football,” head coach Todd Wheeler said. “In these kinds of games, you don’t get many opportunities, and when you get them you have capitalize on them. And we didn’t do a good job of doing that on offense.”

The Tigers iced the game with a touchdown late in the fourth.

Landon Lawrence scored on a seven-yard run to give Darlington a 14-0 lead with 4:28 to go to in the game, and the defense took care of the rest in the Tigers’ win.

Darlington held Coosa—one of the premier rushing teams in the region—to only 93 yards on the ground, and only 39 through the air.

“We knew coming in that their run game was very strong and that their pass game was good, but it wasn’t as lethal as their run game,” Edge said, “So we knew if we shut that down we’d probably make plays and have a chance to beat them.”

Another big advantage for the Tigers was field position.

Throughout the match, punter Landon Lawrence placed three kicks inside the Coosa 20-yard line, which forced the Eagles to play with their backs against the wall and also helped give Darlington better field position on the other end.

“In a game like this, when you’ve got two good football teams, field position is so big,” Atha said. “That was big for us to gain that field position.”

Darlington’s Edge led all rushers with 104 yards on 27 carries and a score, while Coosa’s Ware managed 53 yards on 14 carries.

Hunter Manning completed 5-of-8 passes for 78 yards for the Tigers, and Evan Simms connected on 5-of-14 passes for 39 yards for the Eagles.

The Tigers — now undefeated in Region 7AA — head to Chattooga next Friday to play the Indians. Coosa returns home to play Armuchee.