Demontay Jones had a night that he will not soon forget. Gaining a total of over 250 yards, Jones racked up 5 touchdowns on the night. He led the Trojans to a 47-12 victory, keeping them undefeated in region play with only Thomasville standing left in their way.
J.D. King, who will soon grace the cover of our November magazine, never disappoints. His 142 yard, 2 TD performance is average by his own standards, but still a stand-out performance by any other standard. He continues to put up gaudy numbers on the year as one of the leading rushers in the whole state.
However, Fitzgerald’s success is not one sided. Having only lost one game this year so far, Fitzgerald’s defense, while not impervious, remains stout. Markeylon Lundy proved that he and the Purple Hurricanes defense are a force to be reckoned with, making 11 tackles of his own against a Pelham offense that only could score two touchdowns on the night.
Lastly, Mark Henderson made the cut on what some might consider to be an unofficial or arbitrary stat. If you were at the Brookwood vs Valwood game last Friday, however, you would disagree. While Valwood’s entire defense could be awarded this position, Mark Henderson set the tone of the Valwood defense with 4 huge hits on the Warriors. With a huge fourth down stop, two blown up screen plays, and a crack-back block on a punt return, Henderson flew around the field and dealt punishing blows throughout the night. As an observer and fan of the game, this is more than deserving of a Top 5 position. If you still don’t agree, just check our Instagram account (@itg_southga) and see if you still think that way.
TOP 5 TEAMS:
The end of the regular season is only 2 weeks away for most teams, so the pressure is high to finish at the top of each of their respective regions. Some teams can clinch the title with a win this week, but others still have a couple of challenges ahead.
Colquitt and Bainbridge both had last Friday off, leaving our #3 team, Valwood, in the spotlight. Traveling to Thomasville to face off against region rival Brookwood, the Valiants walked away with a close victory. After giving up 14 points in the first quarter off of some preventable mistakes, Valwood’s defense stopped the bleeding there. The defense held steady for the remaining 3 quarters as the offense found their stride in the run game, bringing the final to 17-14 as a 4th down sack in the final minute sealed Brookwood’s fate. Valwood once again travels this Friday, this time to Deerfield-Windsor, who is also undefeated in region play. The winner of this game will be the GISA 3-AAA region champion, so the stakes are high on Friday night for both teams.
Clinch lit up the scoreboard against a struggling Lanier. With the score reaching over 50-0 in the first half, the starters were pulled and the JV took over the second half, bringing the final score to 67-28. Zebulon Johnson’s incredible performance was one of many for Clinch, who is still very much in contention for the 2-A region title.
The Purple Hurricanes continued their dominance this week against Pelham, even without their starting quarterback. J.D. King didn’t miss a beat though, running his way onto our Top 5 Players list, as he often does. This Friday’s game against 2-6 (1-3) Berrien doesn’t seem to pose much of threat, but the Rebels won’t go out without a fight, so Fitzgerald has to remain focused and take it one game at a time.
* Our criteria is NOT creating hypothetical matchups amongst teams in an effort to crown a champion; that is settled on the field within each respective division, from A to AAAAAA. Since high school, unlike college, crowns multiple champions per year, our Top 5 is meant to highlight great teams who are excelling within their schedules, regardless of classification. It would be unreasonable and unfair to eliminate teams in lower classifications from our Top 5 simply because of that fact. We can only hold teams accountable to whether or not they are impressively performing against the teams that they are scheduled to play. In short, our criteria is based upon projecting performances and the likelihood of championships, regardless of classification.
