Dawson County Tigers Defeat Westminster 27-3, Advance to Second Round

Dawson County High School, Team FYN Sports

With rainy weather throughout the day, it wasn’t ideal conditions for a first round game of the state playoffs. The Tigers, however, were not fazed.

Despite the poor weather, Dawson County was focused on the task at hand, and it showed in their play.

The Tigers received the ball to open the game, but had to punt quickly after a holding call on first down.

Dawson County Offense heads to the line.

Westminster had good field position to start their drive. However, #12 Riley Herndon intercepted the ball on third down and returned it to the opposite side of the field.

After a couple of first downs, the Tigers scored the first points of the game on a 32-yard field goal by #99 Caleb Bonesteel.

The Wildcats next drive was a long one. They got multiple first downs on both passes and rushes. They eventually settled for a 45-yard field goal to tie the game at 3 nearing the end of the first.

The teams traded 3 and outs on their next drives. On their next drive, the Tigers got multiple first downs to advance the ball. This included a pass to #8 Hunter Barron and a run by #10 Zach Holtzclaw. Unfortunately, Holtzclaw threw an interception that was returned past midfield.

After the Wildcats converted on 4th down, #20 Tripp Caine came up big for the Tigers with an interception to give his team the ball back.

Dawson County moved the ball down the field, but the Wildcat defense forced a 4th down. On the punt attempt, Riley Herndon faked it and threw the ball to #6 Jaden Gibson for a first down. However, it was called back on a flag for an ineligible receiver down field.

Westminster started from the 25, but fumbled the ball on a pitch on the first play. #2 Max Moon recovered it for the Tigers and took it down to the goal line. #15 Isaiah Grindle punched in the touchdown from 2 yards out, allowing the Tigers to take a 10-3 lead into the half.

The Wildcats opened the half with a 3 and out. On the punt, the punter bobbled the snap, resulting in a bad punt that gave the Tigers great field position.

Dawson County had to settle for a 39 yard field goal after a quick 3 and out.

#21 Shawn Thomas shoves a Westminster defender to the ground.

Westminster drove the ball down the field on multiple first downs, but had to settle for a 51 yard field goal. The Wildcats faked the attempt, but they were quickly stopped, giving Dawson County the ball back.

The teams traded 3 and outs again nearing the end of the 3rd quarter. The Tigers’ drive started with a long run by Grindle to end the third. #21 Shawn Thomas opened the final quarter with a first down run. He followed it up with a 24 yard touchdown run to give his team a 20-3 lead early in the 4th.

After another Westminster 3 and out, Shawn Thomas lead the Dawson County drive with multiple first down runs. He also ran in a 5 yard touchdown to expand the Tiger lead to 27-3 with less than 5 minutes in the game.

On the ensuing possession, Caine got his second interception of the game. This sealed the Tigers’ spot in the second round of the playoffs.

https://youtu.be/rET0SSSApkU

1 Comment

  1. Marty Rubin November 16, 2019 at 9:24 am

    Dawson County’s victory was the program’s first win in history over a top-10 opponent from the same classification. The Tigers had been 0-43 in those games since the program’s inception in 1967, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association. It was Dawson’s second road playoff victory in history. The Tigers won at Trion in the 1999 first round. Pretty awesome!

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