Packers take 44-13 win over Rickards into region opener

Published 12:17 am Saturday, September 21, 2024

MOULTRIE – Colquitt County expanded its offensive playbook on Friday and the result was a 44-13 Homecoming victory over Rickards High of Tallahassee in the Hawg Pen.

The Packers led 31-3 at the half and a career-long 50-yard field goal by Brett Fitzgerald on the final play of the third quarter ensured the final 12 minutes would be played under a running clock to end a two-game losing streak.

Colquitt is now 3-2 as it prepares to return to play on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium next Friday in its Region 1-6A opener against Lowndes.

The Vikings are 5-0 and, having Friday off, should be rested when they meet the Packers.

After back-to-back losses to highly ranked opponents North Gwinnett and Lee County, Packers coach Sean Calhoun was looking for an improved play for his team to take into its meeting with Lowndes.

And, by and large, he got it.

Colquitt again received productive rushing games from Day’Shawn Brown and Jae Lamar and easily got the best performance from Cohen Lawson.

The freshman quarterback was 18-for-24 for 151 yards and a touchdown. He also ran for a score.

“We wanted to see if we could throw the ball a little better,” Calhoun said. “We’re slowly adding a little more to Cohen’s plate.

“He made some good passes and we hope to be able to build on that.”

The defense allowed just a pair of field goals until Rickards’ Aaron Johnson intercepted a pass thrown by reserve quarterback Walker Lanier with 17 seconds left in the game and returned it for a touchdown.

Colquitt also got a pass interception by sophomore defensive back Kaden King and a fumble recovery by fellow 10th-grader Nyneson Jeudy Jr. that led to a touchdown.

And the Packers again benefited from another remarkable performance by Fitzgerald.

All the senior kicker did was boot all three field goals he attempted, including the 50-yarder; convert after all five Packers touchdowns; and turn all but one of his kickoffs into touchbacks.

And the one kickoff that did not reach the end zone was an onside kick that Fitzgerald himself recovered.

Colquitt jumped out to a 14-0 lead on a pair of Lamar touchdown runs: a 10-yarder that capped an 84-yard drive in the first quarter and 7-yarder less than two minutes into the second quarter.

Colquitt made it 21-0 when, on the first play after Jeudy’s fumble recovery, Lawson hit A’Zhiyen Alridge on a slant route in the end zone with 10:06 left in the first half.

Fitzgerald recovered the ensuing onside kick and eight plays later Brown scored on an 8-yard run and the Packers were up 28-0.

Rickards, which brought a 3-1 record into the game, finally scored on a 43-yard field goal by Irvin Menjivar with 2:56 left in the half.

But Fitzgerald had an answer for that.

His first field goal of the game came from 31 yards out with 5 seconds left in the half.

The Packers drove 87 yards with their first possession of the second half with Lawson scoring from 14 yards out after faking a handoff to Ramsey Dennis.

Lawson’s next pass was tipped and intercepted by the Raiders later in the third quarter and Rickards eventually turned it into Menjivar’s second field goal, a 27-yarder.

Fitzgerald’s 50-yarder on the final play of the third quarter and 31-yarder with 8:56 left gave him 14 points for the game, leaving him just two points away from breaking the Georgia record of 324 points held by his brother Ryan.

“That 50-yarder was just amazing,” Calhoun said. “Brett is  an incredible weapon for us.”

The Packers rolled up 183 yards on the ground and threw for 154 more.

Brown carried 15 times for 71 yards and a touchdown and Lamar had 11 carries for 64 yards and two scores.

Eight Packers had pass receptions, including Alridge, who had five four 34 yards and the touchdown.

Also on Friday, Richmond Hill won its final non-region game of the season, defeating Buchholz High of Gainesville, Fla., 35-28.

The Wildcats threw just two passes and ran for 462 yards and five touchdowns.

All six region teams will be in action next Friday.

In addition to the game between 5-0 Lowndes and 3-2 Colquitt County, Tift County (2-3) will travel to Richmond Hill (5-0) and Camden County will go to Valdosta.

Both Camden and Valdosta are 5-0.

“I’m proud of our team for how it handled Homecoming Week,” he said. “There have been times when we have had a lack of focus, but we didn’t have that this week.

“I thought we beat a pretty good team. But we made some mistakes that we have to fix going into region play.

“And we are going to need to have a crowd here like we used to have back in the day.”