The Colquitt County seventh-grade football team celebrates after defeating Tift County 28-22 in the conference championship game on September 27 in The Hawg Pen.

MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County seventh-grade football team had been working on a double pass since July, coach Andy Chapura said.

But the young Packers never had the occasion to use it until 16 seconds remained in their conference championship game against Tift County on Tuesday on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.

And it worked. Oh, did it work

With the Packers trailing 22-20 and the ball resting on the Tift County 38-yard line, quarterback Cohen Lawson threw behind the line of scrimmage to wide receiver Gavin Henderson who quickly found Jonathan Armstrong streaking toward the Blue Devils goal line.

Armstrong made the catch and reached the ball over the goal as he was being tackled to give the Packers a 26-22 lead with six seconds left on the clock.

Lawson threw to Tristan Walker for the 2-point conversion to make it 28-22 and the Packers knocked down a long Tift County desperation pass on the last play to claim the championship.

Colquitt finishes 7-0.

Many of the victories have been close calls. None was closer than Tuesday’s game.

Tift County had just scored with 24 seconds left on a 14-yard Jishan Robinson pass to take a 22-20 lead.

It was the Blue Devils first lead of the game.

But the Packers weren’t finished.

Henderson got the Packers fans back on their feet when he returned the ensuing kickoff to the Tift County 38.

That’s when Chapura made the consequential call.

“We run (the double pass) every day in practice,” Chapura said. “We’ve been saving it all year, saving it for a special time. They finally looked at me and I said, ‘Run it.’”

The Tift County coaching staff was not pleased with the touchdown call, pleading that Armstrong was down before the ball broke the goal line.

But the call was not overturned.

The Blue Devils trailed 20-8 heading into the fourth quarter, when they scored twice on passes from Robinson, a running back who was used exclusively in the wildcat formation in the final eight minutes, to finally take the lead.

“My hat’s off to them,” Chapura said of Tift County, which lost 30-16 to the Packers during the regular season. “They came ready and prepared.

“But our boys were ready to capitalize when they had to.”

Henderson had an outstanding game.

In addition to throwing the game-winning touchdown pass, he also scored twice on passes from Lawson, including one from 14-yards out on a fourth-down play in the first quarter to put the Packers up 6-0.

Tift County turned the ball over twice in the first quarter, losing a fumble and throwing a pass that was intercepted by Colquitt’s Quinahri Thornton.

The Blue Devils also turned the ball over on downs on their own 31 on their first possession of the game.

That decision led to the first Lawson-to-Henderson touchdown toss.

The Packers extended their lead when Lawson capped a 15-play drive with a 9-yard touchdown run with 2:10 left in the first half.

Lawson threw to Thornton for the 2-point conversion for a 14-0 lead.

The Packers converted twice on third down and twice on fourth down to keep the 83-yard drive alive.

But three plays after the kickoff, Robinson threw a 72-yard touchdown pass after taking a handoff from the quarterback.

Robinson also ran in the 2-point conversion and the Blue Devils were down just 14-8 at the half.

The touchdown pass represented the only Tift County first down of the first half.

As they did to open the game, the Blue Devils were forced to turn the ball over on downs on their first possession of the second half.

And, again, Colquitt responded with a touchdown, this one on a 20-yard pass from Lawson to Henderson, who dragged a Blue Devil defender with him into the end zone.

The conversion run failed, but Colquitt led 20-8 with 2:16 left in the third quarter.

Tift answered on the second play of the fourth quarter with Robinson and Daveon Knight hooking up for the touchdown and Robinson running in the conversion to pull the Blue Devils to within four again at 20-16.

The Packers ate up four minutes with a 10-play drive that finally stalled at the Tift County 11-yard line with 3:53 left in the game.

Robinson then took direct snaps eight times and drove his team to the Packers 14.

He then threw the touchdown pass that gave his team the lead.

It lasted only 18 seconds.

“We have kept telling our guys, ‘You can dig deeper,’” Chapura said following the game-ending celebration. “And we dug ourselves some holes this season. But we were always able to dig out of those holes.”

Lawson completed 15-of-20 passes for 183 yards and two scores.

Henderson caught five of those passes for 44 yards. Armstrong had four receptions for 75 yards and Tristan Walker caught four passes for 75 yards.