DAWSONVILLE — Sid Maxwell's face did not have the usual look of a winning coach.
Despite a 56-48 triumph over East Hall Friday night at Tiger Stadium that will go a long way to securing a home playoff game, it was understandable that Maxwell was not in a party mood.
His Tigers committed 14 penalties for 175 yards and nearly blew a 14-point lead with just 1:21 left in the game. But, Coey Watson’s interception of a Austin Parker pass in the end zone as time expired on the final play at least allowed him to take a small sigh of relief.
“It was an ugly game. We made some good plays and we made some really stupid plays. But our defense made a couple of big stops and that was the difference I guess,” Maxwell said. “Just way too many penalties and you can’t let teams, even when they’re as good a team as East Hall, you can’t let them come back on you when there is only a minute left. But it was still a win and we’ll take it.”
The ugliness came from the two teams combining for 33 penalties for 360 yards. No touchdowns were called back but half-a-dozen scoring drives were kept alive due to defensive penalties and ill-timed personal fouls on both sides.
"It's hard to win when you have that many penalties," said East Hall's Bryan Gray, whose Vikings had 185 yards in penalties.
It was a huge win for Dawson County (6-2, 4-0 Region 7-AAA) which will travel to arch-rival Lumpkin County (1-7, 1-3) next week with a chance to secure no worse than second place and also set up a showdown with No. 3 Greater Atlanta Christian (8-1, 5-0) in the season finale. But, the Indians, after notching their first win of the season over Fannin County on Friday, are still alive for a playoff berth and surely will have nothing to lose.
“Well first we have Lumpkin and if we play like this we may get beat next time so we have a lot to work on. I’m not even thinking about (GAC) right now,” Maxwell said.
Dawson County never trailed but the game was tied on five different occasions until Watson scored the last of his five rushing touchdowns with 8:39 left in the game for a 42-35 lead. After the Tigers defense forced a punt from the Vikings, aided by a huge grounding call on Parker, the Tigers appeared to have finally gotten some separation when Watson connected with Ethan Cameron on a simple out route that Cameron turned into a 52-yard touchdown when he outraced the Vikings defense down the sideline for a score and a 49-35 lead with 5:21 left.
But the early celebration was not to be. East Hall answered right back when Parker, who finished 27-for-53 for 389 yards and 5 touchdowns, found Sedrion Morris for a 15-yard touchdown with 2:39 left to trim to it 49-42.
Again the Tigers seemingly put the game away when they recovered the ensuing onside kick and Vaughn Clark, who pounded out 237 yards rushing, scored his second touchdown of the game with 1:21 left for a 56-42 advantage.
The Vikings would not go away, however. Parker connected with Austin Brock for a 60-yard gain to the Dawson County 5 and then he ran in from there on the next play to cut the lead to 56-48 with 44 seconds left. However, a 2-point pass attempt fell incomplete and a personal foul penalty was called on the Tigers setting up an obvious onside attempt at the Tigers 45.
East Hall managed to recover the pinball-action kick at the Dawson County 35 and a 19-yard run by Parker got the Vikings to the Tigers 16. A Dawson County pass interference penalty with 4 seconds left gave East Hall one last attempt from the Tigers 8 but a tipped pass was caught by Watson as he was laying on the ground to seal the win.
Watson finished with 151 yards rushing and 116 yards passing to go with the game-clinching interception and provided big plays every time the Tigers needed one.
“Coey is our leader and he’s been doing that all his years here,” Maxwell said. “I’m just glad he’s on my team.”
For East Hall (5-3, 2-2) it was a second consecutive loss and the Vikings now will need a win over rival North Hall (3-6, 3-2) to clinch third place. But, they will have to make due without starting running back Cambren Harrison, who suffered a serious leg injury in the fourth quarter and did not return. They also lost two other starters on the night, Gray said.
“That was tough to see Cambren leave like that and hopefully it’s not as bad as it initially looked. But the game keeps going so we needed the next guy to come in and step up,” Gray said. “This team has heart and showed that with how they almost pulled off the comeback. We’ll rebound from this but we need to get healthy to have any chance in the playoffs.”
For most of the first quarter the defenses showed they were not going to be pushovers against the high-powered offenses. East Hall came in as the No. 2 offense in Class AAA (46.1 points per game) while the Tigers had averaged 41.7 ppg of their last four contests.
After Dawson County forced a quick 3-and-out of the Vikings, East Hall’s Giezi Barrientos picked off Watson on a tipped pass. But the Tigers’ Shawn Thomas three plays later picked off East Hall’s Parker to snuff out the Vikings second drive.
The two teams then traded punts with Dawson County eventually starting its fourth drive from its own 2. The Tigers then showed off their big-play ability.
Watson ran for 14 yards, Clark busted through the line for a 19-yard run, and Watson connected with Ryan Glass on a 20-yard pass to the Vikings 3. Watson capped the 98-yard drive with a 1-yard scoring run for a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter.
As defensive as the first quarter was, the second was all offense. East Hall answered on its next drive into the second quarter with Parker finding Sedrion Morse, who had 9 catches for 123 yards, on a 46-yard pass as Morse was able to snare the pass between two Tigers defenders at the Dawson 11. Two plays later Parker and Morse hooked up for an 11-yard touchdown pass to tie the game.
The Tigers needed just 1:18 to retake the lead as Watson scored on another 1-yard run that was set up by a 60-yard run from Clark to the Vikings 8.
East Hall stormed back to tie the game again aided by two controversial 15-yard penalties on Dawson County The big play, however, was a 28-yard strike from Parker to Brock on 4th-and-16 and then the pair connected for an 11-yard touchdown pass on the next play to tie the game again at 14.
The Tigers struck quickly again needing just three plays, along with two East Hall penalties, with Vaughn capping the 1:09 drive on a 19-yard run for a 21-14 lead with just 3:02 left in the half.
But the Vikings did not go away. Parker accounted for 42 yards of the ensuing 57-yard drive, including a 16-yard strike to Brock to the Tigers 1. Harrison, who had 52 yards rushing and 53 yards receiving and a pair of scores before being injured, punched in a 1-yard scoring run with 21 seconds left to tie the game again for a 21-21 stalemate at halftime.
SCORING SUMMARY
East Hall..........0.....21...7....20 -- 48
Dawson Co......7.....14...14...21 -- 56
First Quarter
D -- Watson 1 run (Allen kick) 7-0, 2:05
Second Quarter
E -- Morse 11 pass from Parker (Callahan kick) 7-7, 11:52
D -- Watson 1 run (Allen kick) 14-7, 10:34
E -- Brock 11 pass from Parker (Callahan kick) 14-14, 4:11
D -- Clark 19 run (Allen kick) 21-14, 3:02
E -- Harrison 1 run (Callahan kick) 21-21, 0:21
Third Quarter
D -- Watson 24 run (Allen kick) 28-21, 7:41
E -- Harrison 25 pass from Parker (Callahan kick) 28-28, 3:32
D -- Watson 3 run (Allen kick) 35-28, 0:53
Fourth Quarter
E -- Randall 29 pass from Parker (Callahan kick) 35-35, 11:24
D -- Watson 12 run (Allen kick) 42-35, 8:39
D -- Cameron 52 pass from Watson (Allen kick) 49-35, 5:21
E -- Morse 15 pass from Parker (Callahan kick) 49-42, 2:39
D -- Clark 9 run (Allen kick) 56-42, 1:21
E -- Parker 5 run (pass failed 56-48, 0:44
