JEFFERSON, Ga. — Sammy Brown might have been the engineer Friday night, but the Jefferson defense brought the fuel to power the freight train.
The Dragons (4-0) held Oconee County (1-3) to less than 200 yards of offense en route to a 44-7 win at Memorial Stadium. It was the Dragons' first win over the Warriors since 2017.
"I'm very proud of how they played," Jefferson coach Travis Noland said. "They've been getting better each and every week. We spent so much time defending the triple option with St. Pius X and had to change gears to a zone team and a pass-heavy team. Our coaches did a great job of making some adjustments to help us against their passing game."
The Dragon defense was lights out, allowing just 104 passing yards, and 83 rushing yards, forcing one interception, two fumble recoveries and one blocked punt.
Skylar Zimmerman was a big part of slowing the Warriors' offense, accounting for several tackles, and scooped up a fumble and returned it 10 yards for a touchdown to push the Dragons ahead, 30-0, late in the second quarter.
"He had a great night," Noland said. "We're happy for him. He's been going through some tough times in his personal life, and for him to come out and have such a great night is great because he's a wonderful kid."
Brown was most of the Dragons' offense, rushing for 186 yards and four touchdowns. The Clemson commit had two explosive runs for pay dirt, a 41-yard sprint to the goal line with 11:11 left in the first half and a 67-yard run with 8:36 to go in the third quarter.
Brown also made an acrobat interception late in the second half and returned it 46 yards to Oconee's five-yard line. Rhett Hemphill capped the drive with a two-yard TD run with 30 seconds left in the third quarter and a 44-7 advantage.
"This time a year ago, he was not healthy; he was beat up and had a bad ankle," Noland said about Brown. "We've been trying to limit his touches through the non-region schedule so that we can have him full force going into the region play. But we knew he played a bigger factor tonight than he has been, and he stepped up big as you'd expect from him."
After a three-and-out on the game's first series, the Dragons' flurry of scores began on the second drive. Gavin Markey hit Talan Childress on a 47-yard fly down to the Warriors' seven-yard line. Brown finished the 60-yard drive with a seven-yard run for the Dragons' first score and a 7-0 lead.
Oconee County intercepted Markey twice and landed on a Dragon fumble but only cashed in one, a seven-yard pass from Watkins to James Holland with 2:55 go in the game.
"I'm really proud of the team effort tonight," Noland said. "I'm really happy with how we played in all phases, and the kicking game was really good. So, I'm just pleased. I would have been very disappointed if we didn't play well because of how we practiced all week. They were focused, and we played that way tonight."
http://accesswdun.com/article/2023/9/1203351/football-sammy-brown-defense-powers-dragons-past-oconee-county