Dawson County wins nail-biter over Chestatee High School 45-42 in Overtime

Sports, Team FYN Sports

It isn’t very often that you can classify the second game of the season as the “Game of the Year”

However, this is one of those instances.

The Dawson County Tigers faced off against their region opponent the Chestatee High School War Eagles on Friday night. The game didn’t start off the way Dawson wanted it to. On Chestatee’s 3rd play of the game, they heaved the ball to a receiver who tipped it, causing the people to keep moving past the Dawson defense and into the hands of another War Eagle receiver, who ran the ball 73 yards for the score. The play was eerily similar to a play made by different War Eagles against some Bulldogs back in 2013.

After the teams traded 3 and outs, Dawson finally got some offense going, with quarterback #10 Zacchaeus Holtzclaw tossing a 30 yard touchdown to #12 Riley Herndon to even the score at 7 with 6:54 left in the first quarter.

On the following possession, Chestatee moved the ball on some large gains, eventually scoring on a 4 yard scramble by the QB to retake the lead 14-7 a minute and a half later.

Dawson didn’t respond the way they wanted to, as they threw a pick on the following possession on 3rd and 10. However, the defense was able to respond and stop the War Eagles on 4th down to regain possession.

The Tigers were able to get the offense moving again with a few first down passes. Unfortunately, the drive was killed by a bobbled snap for a loss of 6 yards and a high snap that went over Holtzclaw’s head for a loss of 12.

Chestatee’s offense continued to score on big plays. On second down, they fired a slant that went 80 yards for the score. Dawson’s special teams showed signs of life, with #37 Kobe Rea blocking the extra point to hold the lead at 20-7.

Dawson started off the next drive with another bobbled snap, however they turned it around, with #21 Shawn Thomas running in a touchdown from 15 yards out to cut into the deficit.

Chestatee responded by marching the ball down the field in chunks to score 4 minutes later and extend their lead back to 2 possessions.

Dawson was able to keep the ball moving on their next two possessions. Unfortunately, both ended with missed field goals of 40 and 46 yards, to keep the game at 27-14 heading into halftime.

For the second week in a row, Dawson was able to start the second half nicely. The halftime speeches seem to work extra well. On their first play of the second half, #1 Dakohta Sonnichsen took the handoff coming out of the slot and ran it 69 yards for the score.

The energy that wasn’t there in the first half could be felt from the sideline. Despite being kicked around in the first half, Dawson took control of the game, and it was now theirs to lose.

Although Chestatee was able to move the ball, it seemed Dawson’s defense was right there every time. Eventually, Riley Herndon was able to intercept a pass to get the ball back for his offense. Unfortunately they weren’t able to do much with it.

The War Eagles continued to move the ball, and eventually scored on a 20 yard touchdown pass to regain a 2 possession lead.

These Tigers were not ready to quit. The kick return was brought back to the 24 yard line, and the ball was thrown to #8 Hunter Barron for the score.

Dawson’s defense wasn’t done, with #7 Braedon Hubbard taking an interception to the house on the following possession to give Dawson their first lead of the game, 35-34, with 1:33 left in the 3rd quarter.

Yet again, the Tigers showed they still had tons of energy, with Herndon getting his second interception of the game to give Dawson the ball back.

For nearly a full quarter, neither team could even get a first down. With a few minutes remaining, Chestatee finally got the ball moving by converting on a 4th and 1. On the following play, they chucked a 25 yard pass down the field, which was moved even further ahead on a targeting call. On 3rd and 2 from the goal line, they ran the ball in to regain the lead with 1:06 remaining. To extend their lead to 7, Chestatee went for 2. Their quarterback dropped back and threw a short pass, which was batted down by Dawson. Unfortunately, it landed right back in the hands of the quarterback, who ran it around the outside to give the War Eagles a 42-35 lead.

Cool and collected, Dawson drove the ball down the field quickly, with a few long passes, and a 9 yard touchdown pass to Barron to tie the game with 11.8 and head into overtime.

For those who don’t know, GHSA football plays overtime the same way the NCAA does, except offenses start from the 15 instead of the 25 yard line.

Chestatee kept the ball on the ground and got to 3rd and 1 from the 6. Dawson’s defense stepped up again, limiting the offense to less than a yard gain, setting up 4th and inches. The War Eagles elected to go for it, and the defense got to the quarterback in the backfield for a loss to give their offense the ball.

Dawson got to a similar 4th and short situation and chose to kick in the 23 yard game winning field goal by #99 Caleb Bonesteel with a final score of 45-42.

Dawson County’s next game is at West Hall on September 13th.

https://youtu.be/mX8YhkomVJE

1 Comment

  1. Marty August 31, 2019 at 7:35 pm

    What a win for the Tigers! Great write up and interview with the coach. Great question asking what the coach said at halftime.

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