The second day of the Prelude to the Championship high school football scrimmage is now in the books after two more scrimmages were held at Finley Stadium Saturday night.
Heritage and Tyner were Saturday’s winners, giving Georgia teams three of the four wins in these first two days. The Generals opened play with a convincing 36-14 win over East Hamilton while the Rams were equally as impressive in a 40-14 win over Hixson in a contest where Tyner scored the final 27 points.
HERITAGE 36, EAST HAMILTON 14: Jake Collette booted a 39-yard field goal in the Generals’ second possession for a 3-0 lead with 6:44 left in the first quarte and Heritage never trailed.
Brayden Slaughter made it 10-0 with a 42-yard TD scamper with 2:36 left in the first.
Heritage coach Jeremy New knows the first real game has yet to be played, but he’s really pumped about his guys as he’s serving as the head coach for the first time after serving as an assistant to E.K. Slaughter for a number of years.
“These guys really play for each other and really care for each other’s well-being, but it seems like our offense is totally built around Brayden Slaughter,” he said shortly after the first one ended.
“We definitely have some stuff to clean up, but it’s nice to see how they will react under the lights. I just wanted to see them compete tonight and really happy with most of what I saw,” he added.
Heritage extended its lead to 17-0 midway through the second period when quarterback Caiden Hight tossed a 34-yard pass to Cody Bryan, a beautiful pass play that came just two snaps after Hight hooked up with Caiden Foster on a 46-yard completion down the middle.
East Hamilton finally got on the board with 4:21 before intermission when Wyatt Miller hooked up with Grayson Maddox on a scoring pass from the 3, which was set up by a 65-yard pass from Miller to Jermaine Heathington.
The Generals wasted no time bouncing back as Hight hooked up with Brayden Stoker on an 80-yard TD pass some 57 seconds after East Hamilton’s score.
The Hurricanes used a 35-yard interception return by Kobe Maddox-Rivers with nine seconds remaining as the difference was 23-14 at the break.
Neither team scored in the third quarter when a running clock was being used, but the Generals put matters out of reach with two final TDs in the fourth.
Cole Pritchett had a two-yard run on the first play of the final stanza while Zechariah Lewis was on the receiving end of an eight-yard TD pass from Connor Cooper with 1:21 to play.
TYNER 40, HIXSON 14: The Rams struggled on both sides of the ball in a recent scrimmage with Ringgold, so coach James Mainor was intent on seeing improvement in both areas. It’s safe to say that he feels much better now after his team rallied from a 14-13 deficit to score 27 straight at the end.
“Our main goal was to execute on offense and defense as with did neither against Ringgold. It’s hard to tell how good you are when that doesn’t happen, but I saw some better things tonight,” Mainor said during the halftime break.
“I know we need to be more physical up front, but I thought our quarterbacks ran the offense smoothly. It was 14-13 for a while, so it was nice to see how we bounced back from that little bit of adversity. We are still a long way from where we need to be, but we’re headed in a better direction and that’s what matters most to me right now,” he added.
De’Aeron McNealy put Tyner on the board with a TD scamper from the 9 with 7:37 left in the first quarter. Avery Ford made it 13-0 when he hauled in a 21-yard pass from Tyler Anderson with 3:21 left in the first.
Hixson took its only lead with a pair of TDs early in the second, the first on a six-yard run by Jake Pollock. The second came when Ryan Burney returned a fumble for another score with 10:11 left before intermission, but the Rams got a second TD from McNealy on a run from the 2.
The score was 26-14 at halftime when Ju’Won Hubbard scored on a short pass play from Anderson with 23 seconds left.
The Rams added two more touchdowns in the final half to win going away.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)