Allen Peake stood atop the top row, far to the left of midfield and waited.

Finally, it was time for the invocation and national anthem.

“All right,” the state representative said, “let’s play ball.’”

And indeed, FPD played ball. This GHSA thing? Piece of cake, to the tune of 26-8 for the Vikings over Irwin County.

“We’ve been planning all summer and all summer practices and everything for this moment and for this season,” lineman Daniel Jones said. We’re just proud to be out here and proud to play football.”

FPD’s Ben DuBose had quite the night, turning in all but a career game in the Vikings’ venture into the new world. He bulled ahead for short yardage, he batted down a pass, chased down runners, and hold on to your pom poms, he outran Irwin County’s defense for a 65-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.

DuBose is not a sprinter.

“Oh no, not at all,” he said with a smile. “I just run straight ahead.”

Joked head coach Greg Moore, “You can drop tenths in a hurry when you see that end zone with nobody in front of you. That changes your 40 time in a hurry.”

It was perhaps a surprise at how in control the Vikings were for most of the game.

Certainly the first game’s result stunned those who thought it the beginning of the end back two years and a month ago when FPD officials made the risky announcement that the school would broaden its horizons and — hark — join the GHSA.

As it was, we just watched a simple old football game, one that was surprising in how well FPD held its own, showing no nerves or jitters.

“In our locker room, we had and still do have a sense that we have a special football team,” Moore said. “We don’t want to talk about this one too much, but word will get out that we had a good win.”

For the record, Murray Ricketson scored the first GHSA points for FPD with a 30-yard field goal with 3:29 left in the first quarter. The first touchdown came on Wesley Gilbert’s halfback pass to Jonathan Millwood with 8:18 remaining in the half. And Scott McCormick recorded the first interceptions with 9:51 to go in the game.

Throughout the first half, it appeared that defensive coordinator Rennie Atkinson’s unit was going to pitch a shutout. The Indians managed some nice plays, but nothing exceptional, despite the size of big running back Bernard Baker and a little more beef up front.

Every so often, the Vikings individually got pushed back, but collectively they more than held their own on the line as well as in chasing down Indians.

A little surprisingly, Irwin County came out of the halftime with more energy than FPD and started gashing the Vikings up the middle. And just like that, after a touchdown and conversion, the gashing was done.

There were scores of “I haven’t been to an FPD game in a while, but I had to come see” representatives in the crowd that the home stands couldn’t hold, and it’s hard to say what they expected. It was still 11 on 11, 100 yards by 53, and the scoring was the same.

FPD wasn’t a Pop Warner team playing Northside. This was a program that has sent a few kids on to play college football, a program that is well-coached and has played primarily well-coached teams through the years.

And fundamentals can — as FPD will show this season, in wins and losses — even the field against size and speed, not to say that all of the Vikings are undersized and slow.

Ask Irwin County how big and strong quarterback Clay Martin was when he bulled in from 7 yards out to seal the win with 6:40 left. Yes, it sealed the win even with only an 11-point lead. FPD’s defense wasn’t going to bend enough for the Indians to come back.

Note, too, that nobody caught DuBose on that fourth-quarter sprint.

Neither team is likely Georgia Dome-bound in December, but this game wasn’t about that for the home team. Still, FPD went toe to toe with a team that reached the playoffs last year and won.

“I’m really at a loss for words in terms of how I would like to describe how I feel for the kids in that locker room, who have listened to an awful lot and have stayed quiet and concentrated on playing football,” Moore said. “That is exactly what our coaching staff has asked them to do.

“The kids in the locker room have done what they’re supposed to do.”

Contact Michael A. Lough at 744-4626 or mlough@macon.com