’Jackets can’t repeat winning effort
Posted: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 12:00 pm
Greenfield’s follow-up effort to the one that netted the Yellowjackets their first win since 2010 was nowhere near as noteworthy as the one that broke a 15-game losing streak.
South Fulton scored 21 first-quarter points and never looked back in handing G’field a 48-6 thumping Friday night on the Devils’ turf.
The loss dropped the ’Jackets — who’d snapped a long losing skid the week before with a 25-21 victory over Bruceton — to 1-5 overall, 0-3 in District 14A play.
First-year head coach Don Pitt said his Greenfield club “ran into a good football team that jumped on us quick.”
“It got away from us when they got ahead so quickly, and we had to get away from some things offensively that we wanted to do. We had several drops early, we didn’t wrap up and tackle well defensively. We just never could stop them.”
J.P. Fowler had a monster game for the Red Devils, scoring five touchdowns — three rushing, one receiving and the last on an 89-yard kickoff return. Fowler, who also had an interception, ended with 349 all-purpose yards in the contest.
Greenfield, which played without starting quarterback Jeffrey Johnson — who was ejected in the Bruceton contest and forced to sit out the following game as mandated by state regulations — managed just 183 yards of total offense.
The bulk of that came from Austin Pence, who had his second straight 100-yard rushing game. Pence finished with 111 yards on the ground on 15 carries and scored the ’Jackets’ lone touchdown with 2:31 to play on a nine-yard run.
“I wish we could’ve gotten him some more touches, but we just got down too far, too early,” Pitt said of Pence.
Freshman John David Ricketts started at quarterback and completed 7-of-19 passes for 62 yards with two interceptions.
Pitt said he didn’t foresee a letdown following the G’field’s drought-busting victory the week before coming into the contest.
“The kids were excited, yeah, but they had a good week of practice and I thought we were ready to go,” the coach insisted. “Obviously, not having our normal starting quarterback hurt, but I thought John David (Ricketts) stepped in and did a good job for the second week in a row.”
Zachary Lewis had a team-best five tackles, according to the unofficial defensive chart, while Drake Roberts and Joseph Pope were in on four stops apiece.
Pitt said to expect some defensive changes this week when his Yellowjackets host district-leading Humboldt, which has won the league championship the past two seasons and hasn’t lost a 14A game since the 2009 campaign.
“We’re going to do some things differently, starting this week,” he said. “Humboldt has several kids who like to get to the edges, and it’ll be a good challenge for us to try and keep them from doing that.”
The coach also said he’s had two new players to join the program — seniors Zack Grooms and Tony Robinson.
Grooms actually played some on Friday at wide receiver and defensive back, while Robinson, who was scheduled to participate in the regional golf tournament on Monday, will come aboard the football team full-time afterward and play receiver and in the secondary.
Friday’s home game with Humboldt is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Published in The WCP 10.2.12
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’Jackets can’t repeat winning effort
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