MOULTRIE – The Colquitt County sixth-grade football team improved to 2-1 on the season Wednesday with a 26-0 victory over Lowndes Middle School on Tom White Field, Mack Tharpe Stadium.

Quarterback Cohen Lawson ran for 119 yards and two touchdowns, and also completed five passes for 72 yards and two touchdowns to lead the young Packers.

Gavin Henderson started the game with a bang, fielding the opening kickoff near the Packer 40-yard line and returning it 43 yards to put the young Packer offense in the red zone immediately. 

Lawson followed up the big return with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Tristan Walker down the left sideline.  The 2-point conversion attempt failed, but the Packers held a 6-0 lead just 19 seconds into the game.  

Late in the first quarter, the Vikings mounted a drive past midfield, but Elijah Fortson broke through and made a big drive-stopping tackle-for-loss on fourth down.  

The Packer offense took over one yard into Viking territory, and Henderson went to work, running around the right end, breaking a tackle near the line of scrimmage, and galloping 21 yards.  Two plays later, Henderson caught a short pass from Lawson and gained another 20 yards, setting up a first and goal situation.  

Lawson dropped back to pass on the next two plays, but ended up running both times.  On his second run of the series, the young quarterback found a big seam and went untouched for an eight-yard touchdown and a 12-0 lead.  

The Packer defense nearly supplied the next points of the game, when Kendall Jordan intercepted a pass on the 27-yard line of the Pack and returned it 73 yards for an apparent touchdown. The return was nullified by an illegal block in the back penalty, and the half ended soon after.

On the second offensive possession of the third quarter, Lawson ran for 21 and 12 yards, sandwiched around a dazzling 21-yard run by speedy Marcus Poole. Then, from the 9-yard line, Henderson caught a short pass from Lawson and maneuvered his way into the end zone for another Packer score.  This time, Lawson called his own number on the 2-point attempt and converted. The Packer lead was 20-0 going into the final period.

Xavier Carter, Cole Rojas, Lavoris Blyther and Eric Key shared the ball-carrying duties in the final Packer drive of the day.  The Vikings forced a fourth-down play, and called a time out with less than a minute to go in the game – apparently hoping to get the ball back one more time.  Lawson made Lowndes pay for the time out when he dropped back to pass but was forced to scramble, and ended up zig-zagging his way 40 yards to pay dirt, giving Colquitt County the final 26-0 margin.  

“I’m proud of our kids,” head coach Matt Key said.  “We played a complete game – we made big plays on offense, defense, and in the kicking game.  That’s always the goal.”

The young Packers finished the day with 276 yards of offense, including 204 rushing.  

The sixth grade football team travels to Coffee County next Wednesday.