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Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

Baldwin thumps WACO

MILLEDGEVILLE — A day before kickoff, Joel Ingram was blunt about what his offense was getting ready to face at Baldwin.

“They have a (heck) of a defense,” the Washington County head coach said. “They’re the real deal.”

And after his offense went against that defense?

“What did I say?” Ingram said. “I knew they were good.”

Baldwin showed it has some offense and special teams, too, and both led the way for the Braves to stop Washington County 27-7 on Friday night in a showdown of rivals and playoff-bound teams.

Baldwin improved to 7-2 overall and 5-0 in GHSA Region 3-AAA while Washington County fell to 8-1 and 4-1.

All Baldwin head coach Jesse Hicks could do upon the mention of the Braves’ second straight region title after decades of drought was giggle.

“I think back to when we got those two losses vs. Peach and Carver,” Hicks said of the September defeats. “People kind of threw us up under the bus. We just made a bunch of mistakes.

“(Friday night), we played mistake-free football.”

Third-string tailback Altovise Harris was huge for the Braves, racing for 167 yards and touchdown runs of 37 and 45 yards in a statement for the offense.

“We had to (make a statement),” the junior said. “My O-line did a great job. I was just trying to get upfield. That’s the only thing I was trying to do”

Kelvin Simmons turned in the play that put the momentum squarely on Baldwin’s side.

Washington County’s kickoff to open the second half went fairly deep and bounced around, and Simmons picked it up only a few feet from Baldwin’s sideline. Despite little room to operate, he operated.

Simmons scooted down the left side for a 78-yard touchdown to open the half and give Baldwin a two-touchdown lead. A big two-touchdown lead.

“We had no coverage on that side,” Ingram said. “That’s something we’ve done well all year long on, and we laid an egg.”

The Braves more than put it away when Harris started off right tackle, lost his balance, regained while bouncing off the pile off linemen, and took off around the right side and won the 45-yard race for the score with 9:13 left in the game.

“I know,” he said excitedly about keeping his balance. “I’m just excited that it happened that way.”

Ingram wasn’t happy with his team’s effort on a few plays.

“Giving up a couple of cheap touchdowns like we did,” he said. “I thought – and no disrespect to (Baldwin) – defensively, I thought we – I won’t say quit – didn’t play very well.”