Mary Persons survives defensive battle against West Laurens

The defenses were good as advertised, so naturally, the passing game was the difference in a battle of run-heavy teams.

Mary Persons got a 55-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter and had a touchdown drive sparked by a 41-yard pass play to get past West Laurens 14-2 Friday in a GHSA Region 2-4A showdown.

Mary Persons all but sealed the top seed in the region while improving to 6-2 overall and 3-0 in region play. West Laurens fell to 5-3 and 2-1.

The Raiders had good field position in the first half but couldn’t do anything with it. Their defense got them on the board when the Bulldogs fumbled a pitch out under pressure in the end zone for a safety late in the first quarter.

Caleb Speir connected with Malik Herring for a 55-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter, one play after West Laurens intercepted a pass but fumbled the ball back to the Bulldogs.

The back-and-forth continued with neither offense able to get much going, in one part because both mostly stuck to the run, although Mary Persons did test and open up the defense with some passing.

It was on a second-and-1 when Speir tossed a short pass in the right flat to Jatori Sims, who did the rest of the work for a 41-yard gain.

Eight plays later, Zach Harvey leaped over from the 3 for a touchdown and a 14-2 lead with 4:41 left in the game.

Eight who mattered

Herring, Dan O’Neal and Tre Howard: The Mary Persons starting defensive line led an overall unit effort that led to 15 plays of no gain or negative yardage. Herring added the touchdown reception, on which he showed speed and threw in a stiff-arm.

Shundrekus Smith, Abram Morrow and Mataio Elvine: The West Laurens starteding defensive line — and linebackers Jathaniel Allen and Doryan Gorham, among others, added superb games — sent Mary Persons backward 13 times, including on the early safety.

Speir: His numbers were effective as the Bulldogs tried to spread the field, with a 10-of-17 night, one interception and 169 yards.

Darius Bradford: The senior gained 60 yards on 22 carries, probably the hardest 60 yards he worked for in a while.

Worth mentioning

Self-destruction: Mary Persons faced a first-and-28 in the third quarter, the drive starting on the 22 and going backward to the 4. The Bulldogs suffered 5-yard pre-snap penalties all night and had consecutive penalties for 15 yards on West Laurens’ possession right before that.

Chances wasted: West Laurens started first-half drives on Mary Persons’ side of the field three times and on its own 45 another time. The Raiders managed only three first downs on those drives.

They said it

Mary Persons head coach Brian Nelson after emerging from the locker room all smiles: “I’m waiting for my pizza to get here. We ain’t going home hungry.”

Nelson on the gritty aspect of the win: “We knew that’s what type of game it was going to be. Two pretty good defense right there, I think. We were just able to get a couple more plays.”

West Laurens head coach Stacy Nobles: “When you’re playing a defense like Mary Persons, they’re able to pin their ears back and take away your running game. But we had some opportunities early on.”

Nelson on his team’s mistakes making life harder: “We were able to overcome so — golly — penalty after penalty after penalty after penalty. Short field (for West Laurens) the whole first quarter, short field in the third quarter when we tried to take the wind.”

Nobles on the margin of error: “We had a busted coverage on a play, and Malik scored the touchdown. We worked that for two weeks, and our strong safety bites. They didn’t surprise us. We bust coverage, and they break a big play, but it’s still 7-2 at the half.”

Harvey on the tough night rushing: “That was a real good defense that we played. My offensive line played real hard. (The Raiders defensive front was) real tough.”

Nobles on the Raiders’ near misses: “We moved the ball at times, and we were very close to breaking some runs. We had a couple stupid false start penalties, a couple turnovers. … We’re going for it on fourth-and-2, another false start.”

Nobles on West Laurens’ offensive issues: “Just missed reads. We’re an option football team out of the gun. If you can’t pass the ball, and you don’t read (the option) correctly … we just made too many busts. We knew they’d be good up front. A lot of times, you’ve got to read teams. They gave us exactly what we worked on the last two weeks.”

Nelson on patience: “(It’s) 7-2, and you’re just waiting. You’re sitting there thinking, ‘Who’s going to make the play? What Bond move is going next? When are we gonna miss a tackle and Bradford goes for 40 yards and they get field position back?’ It just never happened. But, I don’t know, I thought they were pretty good. I thought we were pretty good, too.”

What’s next?

Mary Persons hosts Perry on Friday while West Laurens visits Upson-Lee.

This story was originally published October 21, 2016 at 11:58 PM with the headline "Mary Persons survives defensive battle against West Laurens."