LOGANVILLE – Big game, big plays, big victory.

When the Packer defense took the vaunted Grayson High Rams’ offense – particularly the rushing attack – out of the game, Ty Leggett’s fresh second-half legs took over the scoreboard. Leggett ran 14 times in the second half for 131 yards and two touchdowns as No. 1 Colquitt County High silenced the No. 3 Rams Friday at Grayson Community Stadium 26-14.

This televised showdown was full of the big play, from two Packer pass interceptions to a 98-yard kickoff return into the end zone to plays Grayson was able to make in the first half but then abandoned the Homecoming team in the second.

For the game, Leggett had 134 total yards on the ground and Daijun Edwards rushed for 63 yards on 18 totes. The focus on Edwards, who entered the stadium with 11 touchdowns in five games, showed how much the Rams were committed to stopping Colquitt County from running the football, but only successfully in the first half.

Quarterback Jaycee Harden was a perfect 4-for-4 passing in the second half for 68 yards including a 50-yard strike to Ja’Naz Graves. This was after Harden missed on his last seven throws of the first half, three completions in all for 33 yards (give him 101 for the contest).

In fact, Colquitt amassed just 75 yards of offense in the first half, but Montavious Ponder did more than that on one kickoff return. He scored going 98 yards for six after Grayson’s Phil Mafah had a 31-yard touchdown run to give the Rams a 14-3 lead in the second period. Ponder earned his long-awaited “Go-6” at 2:29 until the break, but Grayson went into intermission still in the lead 14-10.

With the cavalcade of football talent going to any Division I college one can think of on this grass field Friday, momentum had to be one of those intangible factors Packer head coach Rush Propst knew would make a difference. The Ponder touchdown certainly provided one of those shifts, but Colquitt County – even trailing the entire first half for the first time all season – also kept themselves close through safety Camari Louis’ second-quarter interception and a defensive stand that yielded no Rams points inside the ‘red zone.’

Grayson, though, showed no life after Leggett turned on his proverbial motor early in the second half.

The home team wanted the football first after a quite warm afternoon and hit the game’s first big play when J’kori Jones passed to Ryan King. King turned it into a 65-yard gain to Colquitt’s 20-yard-line. Samari Louis’ pass breakup in the end zone led to fourth down. Jones, needing only one yard, was not awarded any penetration leaning into the Packer defensive front.

But Grayson took advantage of a lost fumble to get the game’s first points, a 35-yard play-action dump off to fullback Zach Bush by Jones in the kind of one-play series Colquitt’s thrived on the last two weeks.

The Rams carried the 7-0 lead into the second period. Offensively, Colquitt faced seven third-down conversions, executing on four of them. All were pass plays, including Edwards’ first throw to tight end Josh Hadley. But there was a missed field goal of 40 yards wide right.

Ty French nearly picked off Jones late in the quarter, but early in the second Biron Silas’ stop set the Rams up on 3rd-and-8. Camari Louis’ intercepted Jones here with a 59-yard return. This set up Ryan Fitzgerald’s 34-yard field goal at 9:23.

The teams traded three-and-out series, the key Packer plays coming from linebackers Marcus Anderson and Kendrick Neloms. Grayson was back in Packer ground with under four minutes to play and rotated in a thicker running back, Mafah, who would get 51 yards in four first-half rushes. He scored going up the middle with 2:46 to play, and it was a costly snap for Colquitt as sophomore end Zy Brockington went down with an injury and did not return.

Grayson ran for 67 yards and passed for 167 in the first half. That went down to 12 on the ground – with only three running backs touching the football once each – and 114 passing on seven completions by Jones.

Ponder kept the visitors within one score as the new half began, and Fitzgerald capped off the initial drive of the third quarter putting through a 23-yard field goal. Lemeke Brockington made a leaping catch for first down on the CC 37, but it was Leggett, behind an offensive front filling in a big missing piece, doing the simple power run for 51 yards to the Ram 7.

That completely changed Colquitt’s offensive outlook, not to mention that of the Rams.

Cornerback Nyquan Washington, after good coverage plays in the first half, picked off Jones to end Grayson’s first drive on the Packer 35. Harden, three plays later, hit Graves on the fly up to the Ram 5-yard-line. Leggett scored his first TD from two yard outs. There was 1:57 to go in the third, and the Packers were in front for the first time 19-14. They tried for two points but failed; otherwise Fitzgerald made all PATs he took.

Grayson ran a majority of its plays with an empty backfield, throwing the football 21 times in the half. Their first series trailing in the game was done in three plays with a punt to the Packer 46.

The first play of the fourth period – and fifth play of the ensuing drive – was Leggett’s left-end run of 43 yards to the end zone. Colquitt’s offensive line received a boost at tackle from Devene Jamerson to go with Remon Young and guards Kameren Barnes, Conner Gay and Jerick Davis plus center Will Rykard.

Colquitt’s defense held to its season average of giving up no more than two scores in a game. Jones led his team on a 10-play drive inside Colquitt’s 15 but got the intentional grounding flag he was flirting with most of the half.

Michael Roberts of the defensive front sacked Jones on the Rams’ final play to punctuate his team’s 6-0 start.

It’s on to another Homecoming, this one on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium, this Friday to play Alcovy High.