BUFORD, Ga. — Bryant Appling, the master of adjustments, stuck again for Buford on Friday night.
Although, by his own admission, it wasn’t much this time.
After watching his Wolves offense struggle mightily against a stout Collins Hill defense in the first half, they unleashed Dayton Raiola and the passing game as they erased a halftime deficit and pulled away for a 34-7 win at Tom Riden Stadium.
“We got the ball down there, what three or four times [five actually] and only got the one field goal,” Appling said. “I thought we moved the ball pretty well, but we just weren’t finishing drives. That was it. We finished those drives in the second half.”
The Collins Hill defense was as good as advertised coming in. The Buford passing game was held in check in the first half as the Eagles’ talented front-7 put constant pressure on Raiola with two sacks and 3 QB pressures as he was just 2-for-8 for 9 yards.
But Buford did find some success on the ground. All five of their first-half possessions were driven into Collins Hill territory. But three times, the Eagles stopped them on downs, and they took a 7-3 lead into the break.
That changed on Buford’s first possession of the third quarter. Raiola connected on passes of 25 yards to Jordan Allen and 14 yards to Cooper Berry and then added a 17-yard scramble on a third-down blitz to move the Wolves down to the Eagles 4.
But once again, the Collins Hill defense stiffened. Javyon Hatch and Stephen Barjolo had back-to-back TFLs to force Martin Poblete’s second field goal of the game, 25 yards, as the Eagles maintained a slim lead at 7-6.
Then the Buford defense got its first big play when Tyriq Green picked off a Makyree Cross pass and returned it to the Eagles 34. Justin Baker took over from there, needing just two plays, including a 15-yard touchdown run, to make them pay. A Sam Harkness 2-point run gave the Wolves a 14-7 lead with 5:24 left in the third quarter.
They broke it open on their next offensive play as Railoa hit a streaking Allen on a 63-yard touchdown pass for a 21-7 lead. Raiola finished 6-of-14 for 122 yards and 1 TD passing.
But more importantly, the Wolves did not turn the ball over against a Collins Hill unit that had forced 11 in six games.
“I feel like we get better and better,” Raiola said. “They had a good D-line coming at us the whole night. But I'm proud of the O-line guys. They went out there and fought the whole night.”
Behind mainly the left side of tackle Graham Houston and guard Brayden Burton, the Wolves pounded out 311 yards on the ground, paced by Ty Green’s 106 yards, 86 coming on Buford’s final score late in the game. Baker had 89 and one score, and Ethan Ervin added 66 yards rushing for Buford.
Early on, it looked like the Wolves would be in for a long defensive struggle, and their first possession ended with a punt. But the first Collins Hill possession was a disaster.
The Eagles had a delay penalty on the opening play. They dropped the snap on the official opening play, dropped a potential touchdown pass on second down, and eventually punted.
But their second possession was anything but. Despite a 3-yard loss on the first play, Cross found a streaking and wide-open Alijah Patillo for a stunning 76-yard bomb for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.
From there, the Buford defense put the clamps on the Eagles for the rest of the first half. They had no first downs and just six total yards over their final three drives.
Collins Hill finished with 136 total yards, but were held to minus-36 yards on the ground. Cross was 12-of-26 for 172 yards and the 1 TD pass but they had less than 100 yards for the game after that play.
“Defensively, we thought we played great, except for the one play, and that was just a miscommunication,” Appling said. “A really good effort overall. But I still feel we can play better football than we are. We’re going to keep working.”
The Collins Hill defense held the Wolves on downs three times in the first half to go with the one punt and a 21-yard Poblete field goal. But they scored on four of five possessions in the second half.
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