Rockmart wins big in opener
The Rockmart Yellow Jackets got down and dirty at home in a 55-0 first round playoff win over South Atlanta, and will be back in action at home against Bremen next week.
“We’re excited to get this win and we get to keep playing,” Head coach Biff Parson said of his 11-0 Yellow Jackets after their opening round playoff win. “But I’m a little disappointed on all the penalties we had, we had two opportunities in the red zone where we didn’t score on them, and we fumbled one and we’ve got to do better than that, regardless of the field conditions.”
An already muddy and messy gridiron at the Rock was after the game a real quagmire after the Jackets ran all over the Hornets on offense and defense on the night.
Rockmart took their time on an opening drive to get down to the 4 before a turnover on downs in one missed opportunity in the red zone, but followed it up only a few plays later after a bad punt by South Atlanta put them right back into scoring position to start a drive at the Hornet 9. From there it was smooth sailing for the Jackets, with exception of several personal foul and holding calls through the rest of the first and second halves.
Penalties and field conditions didn’t deter Rockmart’s offense at all. Dylan Bailey scored the first two touchdowns – one in the air and one on the ground -- and finished off the night in the third quarter with 56 yards rushing and going 4 for 6 on passing for 64 yards and 3 touchdowns passing touchdowns to go along with his 33 yard run into the end zone.
Markus Smith and Zabrion Whatley each scored a touchdown apiece, and along with a cast of other offensive characters spent the night scoring at will before the running clock in the fourth quarter put it well out of reach for the Hornets. The Jackets ended the night with 449 of total offense. The second string played most of the second half.
“Defensively – I’ll talk about that - they did a really good job of getting us the ball back, and giving us really good field position,” Parson said. “And then have players like Dylan, and ZJ, and Markus and all those cats who got to run the football, Juke scored and Reed had a good catch, there’s good offensive production.”
He added though with the number of games Rockmart has played this year where scores have been big and shutouts, and with second half running clocks, it makes it easier to get out of there.
South Atlanta’s offense only put up 80 yards on the night, and quarterback Andrew Banks didn’t hit a single pass, going for four attempts but coming up empty each time against the Rockmart defense.
The Jackets will host Bremen on Nov. 16 after the Blue Devils won 40-10 on the road over Union County. It will be a rematch game for undefeated Rockmart after they faced Bremen in their only pre-season scrimmage of the year.
Parson said he expects a big challenge from the Blue Devils, also ranked in the Top 5 as the playoffs continue.
“It’s going to be a very exciting environment because we’re neighbors with them,” he said. “We’re very familiar with them, we did a lot in the summer together and we had a preseason scrimmage, and it’s two teams that know each other well. We’re going to have a dog fight.”
A