Wayne Grandy
MOULTRIE — While Northside was holding on to defeat Colquitt County 20-17 and claim the Region 1-AAAAA championship on Friday, Lowndes did what it had to do to take second place, scoring three second-half touchdowns to knock off Warner Robins at Martin Stadium 31-17.
Northside and Lowndes finish the regular season with 6-1 records, but the Eagles will take the No. 1 seed by virtue of their 10-7 victory over the Vikings on Oct. 2.
The Eagles will play host to Chapel Hill in a first-round state playoff game next Friday.
Chapel Hill took the No. 4 seed from Region 4 when it defeated Westlake 21-14 in overtime on Friday.
Westlake remains Region 4’s No. 2 team and will play host to Colquitt County on Friday.
The Packers finished 5-2 in the region to take the No. 3 seed.
Lowndes will play host to East Coweta on Friday.
Valdosta would take the No. 4 seed with a victory over Houston County in Saturday’s late game.
With the victory, the Wildcats would finish 4-3 in the region and would have to travel to play No. 4-ranked and 10-0 Newnan.
A Valdosta victory also would eliminate Warner Robins, which could only get in with a Valdosta loss.
Warner Robins, trying to build on its come-from-behind 21-20 victory over Northside the week before, had battled the Vikings to a 10-10 standoff late in the third quarter when Lowndes unleashed its passing game.
Vikings quarterback Cole Parker threw two touchdown passes in the final 13 minutes to put the Demons away.
Warner Robins scored quickly, recovering a Lowndes fumble on first offensive play of the game and cashing it in when quarterback Maurice Dudley hit Brian Sutton for a 32-yard touchdown pass.
It marked the first time the Vikings had trailed at home all season.
But Lowndes began to take the game over late in the third quarter when Josh Clemons took a screen pass from Parker 39 yards for the touchdown that put the Vikings up by seven.
A Parker-to-Troy Braswell scoring pass in the fourth quarter put the Vikings up 24-10. A Robert Anderson touchdown run of 15 yards put the Lowndes up 31-10 before Warner Robins scored again with 52 seconds remaining.
Anderson rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns and Parker was 6-for-10 for 122 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Lowndes played without wingback Khary Franklin, who was withheld from game for an undisclosed reason. Tyler Hunter was injured in the first quarter and did not return.
The Vikings also had to overcome four fumbles to defeat the Demons.
In Tifton, senior Micah McCant, playing his final game for Tift County, rushed for 74 yards and three touchdowns and threw a 6-yard scoring pass to Malcolm Dixon to lead the Blue Devils to a 35-17 victory over Coffee.
Tift County finishes 3-7 overall and 2-5 in the region. Coffee also ends its season with a 3-7 overall record. The Trojans were just 1-6 in the region.
Coffee jumped out to a 10-0 lead, but its next score came in the closing minutes after Tift had gone up 35-10.
