Lowndes, Coffee advance in playoffs

Published 11:00 pm Saturday, November 22, 2008

MOULTRIE — Camden County penetrated a strong Northside-Warner Robins defense for two fourth-quarter touchdowns to defeat the Eagles 28-20 on Friday and advance in the Class AAAAA playoffs.

Northside was one of two Region 1-AAAAA teams eliminated on Friday.

Tift County trailed Newnan just 7-0 at the half, but ended up on the wrong side of a 42-0 score.

The Cougars have defeated their two playoff opponents by a combined 97-0 and remain unbeaten in 2008.

Top-ranked Lowndes and Coffee advanced to the third round with easy Friday night victories.

The Vikings blasted Bradwell Institute 62-21 and will advance to meet unbeaten Grayson next weekend.

Coffee, after being knocked out of the playoffs in the second round each of the last two seasons, will move on after defeating Chapel Hill 35-14.

Lowndes 62, Bradwell 21

The Tigers got off the bus from Hinesville and before the first quarter was over found themselves down 28-0.

The Vikings rolled up 422 yards of offense and scored nine touchdowns as they took another step toward a possible second-straight Class AAAAA state championship.

Greg Reid rushed for 95 yards and a touchdown on seven carries, Gerald Demps added 91 more on six carries and also scored a touchdown and Robert Anderson scored four times.

Sheldon Barnes rushed for 132 yards on 25 carries for Bradwell.

Grayson, also 12-0, advanced with a 17-7 victory over East Paulding.

Camden 28, Northside 20

Northside, the two-time defending Class AAAA champion, took a 20-14 lead over Camden on a 15-yard scoring run by Xavier Bacon with a 3:03 left in the third quarter.

But Camden scored on a 5-yard run by Greg Baker with 8:32 left and on a 2-yard run by Daniel Valdez with 4:10 left.

Both of those scores came at the end of drives that were entirely on the ground.

Bacon also scored twice in the second quarter to erase and early 14-0 Wildcat lead.

Northside finishes 10-2, with its only losses coming to No. 1 Lowndes and No. 2 Camden.

Camden, 12-0 and chasing its first state championship since 2003, will advance to meet Woodstock, which eliminated Norcross 14-10 on Friday.

Newnan 42, Tift County 0

Tift County turned the ball over five times and Newnan ran up 560 yards of offense as the Blue Devils ended their season with an 8-4 record.

The Cougars, who ran their record to 12-0, exploded for five second-half touchdowns.

Newnan quarterback Russell Powell passed for 208 yards and rushed for 114 more.

Jamal Ramsey had two interceptions for the Cougars.

The shutout was the sixth in a row and eighth in the last nine games for Newnan.

The Cougars advance to meet North Gwinnett in the third round for the second straight year.

Newnan fell to North Gwinnett in the quarterfinals last year.

North Gwinnett advanced on Friday, defeating Lassieter 43-21.

Coffee 35, Chapel Hill 14

Melvin Loving rushed for two touchdown and quarterback L’Shawn threw for one score and ran for another as Coffee eliminated Chapel Hill in Douglasville.

The Panthers went 0-10 last year, but finish 2008 with a 9-3 record under first-year coach Chris Parker.

Coffee lost three of its last four regular-season games, but has won two straight in the playoffs and is now 9-3 for the third straight season.

The Trojans, the No. 4 team from Region 1-AAAAA, can improve on that when they travel to Suwanee meet Region 7-AAAAA champion Peachtree Ridge on Friday.

The Lions lost their first two games of the season, but now have won 10 in a row, including a 17-7 victory over Harrison on Friday.

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