| Downed Devils change outlook | | Posted: Monday, September 6, 2010 11:17 am
| South Fulton coach Kelly Spivey insists his team didn’t do its best against District 14A foe Greenfield during a 13-12 defeat on Friday night.
“They controlled the ball and we didn’t tackle well,” Spivey said. “We had enough yardage to win, but didn’t play very good on defense and our effort wasn’t great.
“We couldn’t tackle and gave up way too many yards. In a 13-12 game, you’d think there were a lot of punts, but I think they punted once and that was all.”
All totaled, Greenfield had 337 yards of total offense with 193 of the rushing variety and 144 coming through the air as part of the ’Jackets’ spread set.
By comparison, South Fulton had 335 yards (270 rushing and 85 passing).
“They ran the ball more than we thought they would,” Spivey said. “Their kids played really hard and they were lunging for the extra yard on each run. They obviously wanted this win very badly. We did, too, but we didn’t play well enough to get it.”
With the defeat, SF must now scamper to gain enough victories to qualify for the postseason.
“We had a pretty broad view of the season and of how many victories we needed (to make the playoffs),” Spivey explained. “We have to change that now and focus completely on one game at a time. This district is still wide open with Union City and Lake County both losing tonight, but we’ll probably have to sneak up on someone if we want to make the playoffs.”
The Yellowjackets were the first to get on the scoreboard on Friday.
Greenfield, in its initial drive, marched 68 yards on 12 plays with the first touchdown of the evening coming as Dalton Potts found Tyler Jones — who totaled a game high seven catches and 64 yards — for a six-yard aerial score with 7:05 remaining in the opening canto. The point-after attempt was good and the Yellowjackets (1-1, 1-0 in 14A play) took a 7-0 advantage.
That lead did not last for long as SF rushed back with a nice drive of its own — a seven-play, 72 yard march — that was capped when JaQuay Garmon dove in from a yard out for the touchdown. J.P. Fowler’s point-after was no good and Greenfield held an ever-so-slim 7-6 lead.
Said advantage would hold until the third quarter when South Fulton (1-1, 0-1 in 14A) finally went ahead on the final play of its 15-play, 79-yard scoring series.
Khiry Lewis did the honors with a 13-yard scamper across the goalline and the Redmen held a 12-7 advantage with 7:03 to go in the quarter.
Greenfield fired back with a long drive of its own that stretched a total of 74 yards and finished when Kadeem McDonald took the pigskin to paydirt from four yards away with 4:51 left in the third for what turned out to be the winning score.
Down the stretch, SF had two chances to score in the fourth, but its undoing was ultimately a fumble (with 5:59 left in the game) and a fizzled-out drive in the final two minutes.
Offensively, Cody Tatum was South Fulton’s work horse with 81 yards on 12 carries. Potts was the leading rusher for the Yellowjackets with 18 carries and 83 yards.
Defensively, Alex Gallien had eight tackles for SF, while Tatum finished with seven takedowns. Chance Barnes and Khiry Lewis both had six stops.
Injury-wise, Hamlin and Duane Wynant both suffered what are believed to be hyperextended elbows during the defeat.
South Fulton goes to Fulton City this Friday. | | | | |
