JEFFERSON — For the first 23 minutes against Jefferson, a young Gainesville team looking to make a statement had done just that leading 10-7 over the Dragons. But over the next 5 minutes, Jefferson made an even bigger statement.
The Dragons scored 28 points in that span and eventually ran away with a 42-10 win over the Red Elephants in a much-anticipated matchup that was delayed more than hour due to lightning at Memorial Stadium and then fizzled when they returned.
Quarterback Colby Clark was the catalyst sprinting for a 30-yard touchdown run with just 1:16 left in the first half to give the Dragons a lead, 14-10, they would never relinquish. The special teams then blocked their fourth kick already on the young season moments later. That play set up a 32-yard Clark touchdown pass to Zac Corbin, who wrestled the ball away from Gainesville defender Rassie Littlejohn as the two fell to the ground in the end zone with just 7 seconds left in the half for a 21-10 halftime lead.
Gainesville, which sits 0-4 for the first time since 1964, never recovered.
“We were playing well (up to the lightning delay) but we never really found our mojo when we came back,” Gainesville coach Heath Webb said. “The long run, the punt block, and then the jump ball in the end zone. (Jefferson) got the big plays and we didn’t.”
However, the bigger concern was that despite the whacky end to the first half, the Red Elephants were still easily within striking distance to start the second half. But after a brief 10 minute intermission due to the delay, Jefferson got the ball first to start the third quarter and Clark ripped off a 46-yard run on the first play and capped the short drive with a 1-yard scoring run. Three plays, and just 72 seconds later, defensive end Garmon Randolph tipped a Walt Dixon pass, gathered it in, and returned the interception 15-yards for a touchdown with 9:01 left in the third quarter for a 35-10 lead.
“The lesson to learn here is when things start to go wrong, how do you respond. We did not respond well,” Webb said. “I’ll have to look at the tape and see what exactly happened.”
Meanwhile, the Dragons (3-1) showed how to recover after fumbling on its opening play and putting the ball on the ground six times overall for the game, losing three. They trailed 3-0 and then 10-7 and each time answered a Gainesville score with one of their own.
“Those two or three plays at the end of the half gave us back the momentum,” Jefferson coach Gene Cathcart said. “We had a penalty on the first play back from the delay and just were making lots of mistakes. But Colby made the big run, we got the block, and then we called timeout to set up the pass play. Garmon’s interception was just a huge play to really turn things in our favor.”
Kolton Jones closed out the scoring with a 20-yard touchdown making several nifty cutbacks against the Gainesville defenders with just 5:12 left in the game for the final score.
Clark finished with 70 yards rushing on 9 carries with the three scores and added 69 yards through the air. Kade McNally churned out 64 yards on 7 carries while Corbin had three receptions for 69 yards and one touchdown.
Gainesville took the initial 3-0 lead after an errant Clark pitch on the Dragons first play of the game when Jimmy Mai booted a 22-yard field. Jefferson answered that with Clark’s first rushing score for a 7-3 advantage and the Red Elephants reclaimed the lead on their next drive when Quintavious Haynes scored from 2-yards capping an 80-yard drive.
Haynes finished with 115 yards rushing on 25 attempts but 101 of those came in the first half.
Jefferson will open its Region 8-3A schedule next week at home against cross-county rival East Jackson (1-3).
Gainesville will close out what has been a brutal non-region schedule playing host to unbeaten Flowery Branch (3-0) at City Park Stadium.
SCORING SUMMARY
Gainesville....3.....7......0....0 -- 10
Jefferson.......7....14....14....7 -- 42
First Quarter
G -- Mai 22 FG 3-0, 7:15
J -- Clark 3 run (Kilgore kick) 7-3, 4:05
Second Quarter
G -- Hayes 2 run (King kick) 10-7, 11:56
J -- Clark 30 run (Kilgore kick) 14-10, 1:16
J -- Corbin 32 pass from Clark (Kilgore kick) 21-10, 0:07
Third Quarter
J -- Clark 1 run (Kilgore kick) 28-10, 10:13
J -- Randolph 15 INT return (Kilgore kick) 35-10, 9:01
Fourth Quarter
J -- K. Jones 20 run (Kilgore kick) 42-10, 5:12
