Mary Persons holds off Wayne County
FORSYTH -- With a little more than five minutes to play, Mary Persons took possession of the ball near midfield needing an offensive jolt. And even without scoring any points, the Bulldogs got just what they needed.
Picking up yards in chunks of 3 and 4 yards behind the running of Zach Harvey, Mary Persons was able to run out the clock, going into victory formation at the 1-yard line to hold off Wayne County 14-13 on Friday in the first round of the GHSA Class AAAA playoffs. The Bulldogs led 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and held off the Yellow Jackets, who cut the Mary Persons lead to 14-13 in the third quarter but didn't threaten to score again.
Harvey finished with 64 yards on 18 carries, 54 of the yards coming in the second half.
"I was just thinking first downs and the clock couldn't run fast enough; that's what we were thinking," Mary Persons head coach Brian Nelson said. "It may not have been pretty, but when we needed it, we dug down and found a way to get a couple of first downs, Zach Harvey ran hard and that was pretty big for us."
Mary Persons (11-0) hosts Marist next week in the second round of the playoffs.
It was hardly an offensive showcase for the Bulldogs, who were held to a season low in points scored, managed 184 offensive yards and were rendered scoreless for the game's final three quarters. Their only sustained scoring drive covered 59 yards and was kept alive by passes from quarterback Jake Johnston to Roger Akins and Jatori Sims. It set Mary Persons up inside the 5, where Johnston found Malik Herring for a 2-yard touchdown pass and 14-0 Bulldogs lead, a score that turned out to be the final one of the game for Mary Persons.
With points and yardage at a premium, the Mary Persons defense shined. It held Wayne County (3-8) to 142 yards and forced three interceptions by Yellow Jackets quarterback Nolan Grooms while registering multiple sacks, including two from Herring.
"The defense has been getting better and better every week. They were one of the groups that didn't have experience coming back," Nelson said. "We had a whole new secondary, whole new group of linebackers, and they've just been getting a little bit better each week. That's all we can ask of them."
Mary Persons took advantage of the turnovers it forced.
On the game's first play from scrimmage, Dre Evans picked off Grooms and ran the ball back to the Wayne County four. Two plays later, Jaquavious Sims was in the end zone. Grooms was intercepted by Justin Stroud in the second quarter and by Jatorian Hansford in the fourth quarter, and the latter of the two turned things in the favor of Mary Persons.
"Dre Evans has been playing huge for us all year. That's one of those senior kids that we've been talking about that's been paying his dues and waited his turn and worked hard," Nelson said. "The stuff he's doing, it couldn't happen to a better kid."
After a second-quarter touchdown pass from Grooms to Keandre Boham cut the Bulldogs' lead to 14-7 and the lead was cut to a point on a 1-yard run by Trenquelle Holloway on the heels of a 29-yard pass to Walker Reddish, the Yellow Jackets had a chance to tie the score late in the third quarter. But the extra point was muffed, keeping Mary Persons in front and Wayne County needing a score to pull ahead.
The Yellow Jackets appeared on their way to doing so with less than seven minutes to play after converting on third and 22 from their own 9on a pass from Grooms to Holloway. Two plays later, however, a short pass by Grooms was picked off by Hansford, and the Yellow Jackets could only watch as the Bulldogs held on to the ball for the rest of the game and run out the clock.
This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 12:18 AM with the headline "Mary Persons holds off Wayne County ."