MOULTRIE – If Vista Murrieta High’s football program – settling into South Georgia for a Friday night clash with the Colquitt County High Packers on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium – owns one advantage on its opposition tonight, it’s that their staff had a chance to study this Colquitt County team in real game action. The Bronco people could, like most in the county, sit back and watch on their computer screens in California the live streaming video of the Corky Kell Classic from Atlanta and the Packers’ big 20-17 victory against Norcross High.

What did they see? It was Colquitt domination in terms of numbers, 292 to 112 in total yards in particular. In fact, Vista Murrieta will need 12 net rushing yards just to bring the yards allowed by the Packer defense on the ground this season to zero.

The only thing that marred the offensive performance at Georgia State Stadium was the turnover number, two lost fumbles. Norcross turned one of those into a touchdown to take its first lead of the game early in the fourth quarter. But much like Packer fans have seen players come back from coughing up the football at a bad time and produce immediately, Colquitt’s offensive line answered the call from giving up the sack to their quarterback and pave the way for a long game-winning touchdown drive.

“It was a first for a lot of those guys,” said offensive line coach Joey Bennett about the starts for players like Conner Gay and Jerick Davis on varsity. “In a big-time environment against a great defensive front. They are humongous. We were definitely far from perfect, but I was proud of how we were able to go out there and run the football well. That last drive we were able to do a bunch of runs in a row, pop one and win the game. We responded when the chips were down. We made some mistakes that cost us, and to come back and play well at the end was a step in the right direction.”

Ty Leggett scored that winning touchdown of 34 yards with 2:53 remaining. He had 77 yards, Daijun Edwards rushed for 43 yards and Nigel Hillie used two of his five rushes to gain 17 clutch yards in the last series.

Will Rykard, last year’s starting center as a sophomore, didn’t start the Norcross game but wound up seeing a lot of snaps and was a significant part of the line domination. Bennett said guard Kameren Barnes sprained an ankle, which led to more playing time for Rykard – injured the entire offseason.

“I appreciate him doing that,” said Bennett. “He’ll start (tonight) but will still get limited reps. He’s not 100 percent yet. Having Will out there makes a big difference. He takes pride in what he’s doing and knows how to lead.”

Defensive coordinator Mo Dixon said it was probably the best first-game performance he ever saw out of a defense on his side of the field. The leading Norcross rusher had 21 yards. Quarterback Louis Williams lost a net of 33 yards due to six sacks involving five different Packers. Others lost as many yards as they gained because they couldn’t beat Packers like Dante Moore around the edge.

“We played pretty fast,” said Dixon. “We made some plays. It was up and down. That was a good football team. Norcross is going to do really well.

“Getting to the quarterback, that’s what we are going to try to do. We have speed, but we’re sort of small. We have to keep moving around. Everybody on our defense has to know how to play containment. Building a wall, who has option, kick out blocks – we have to take them on. We have to rehearse a lot of different things.”

Junior end Brian Merritt had 2.5 of the six sacks. The other 0.5 went to a linebacker who checks in a 5-9, 163 pounds. That’s Callon Kubiak, a sophomore.

“He’s completely earned (his playing time),” said Dixon. “I was hearing a lot about him, a scout team player last year. JJ (Peterson) has been slowed by injury, so that opened the door for a lot of different guys. Kubiak is a wild man. He just throws his body out there, runs to the ball, and he’s a real good student of the game.”

Dixon also had praise for the new linebackers coach Jeff Kent getting players to understand what they need to do.

Since this is Vista Murrieta’s first regular-season game, most of what Colquitt County has studied on the Broncos were 2016 games.

“They’re athletic,” said Bennett about the Bronco defense. “They love to blitz, and they just swallow you up. If you are not prepared and locked in on every play, the blitz can eat you up. It’s high stakes when they’re doing that. We have to handle their speed and their pressures.”

“It’s hard to put your finger on it,” said Dixon, who coached against a Los Angeles team during his time at North Gwinnett. “They were a very dominant football team (last year). They just ran through people. They had a really good quarterback, about 6-4.

“They’ll have new guys in new positions, but they have a small army of kids. They are going to replace a good receiver with a good receiver. They are a zone team … massive up front. They are reading you … They get you out of the way. We have been in the office all week, and I haven’t seen too many teams like this team.

“Their splits are really big. They are almost hash to hash. They run the student body sweep like crazy. They are going to run the stretch and toss sweep. Somehow they get five or six guys blocking. They will snap the ball and the whole team will run to the sideline, and the back finds a place to cut. It’s different.”