Week 3 HS football scoreboard: Warner Robins wins 39-35 heart-stopper over Northside
It looked as if a curse might be broken Friday night by Northside High School.
The Eagles led rival Warner Robins by as much as 17 points with 1:30 left in the third quarter after an imposing first-half showing. The end of an agonizing six-year drought seemed within reach, the prospect of a win in one of Middle Georgia’s most historic rivalries tantalizing as time wound down.
The Demons, however, fought back from the brink in what was perhaps one of the feud’s most heart-stopping installments to date, as Warner Robins came back to defeat Northside 39-35 in an instant classic at McConnell-Talbert Stadium.
The game-winning score, a rushing touchdown by Jeremiah Jackson, came with less than two minutes to play and capped a shocking resurgence by the Demons. The game came on the heels of last year’s all-timer, an overtime showdown that Warner Robins took 17-10.
“It’s a special game, this place was packed out, it feels great,” said Demons head coach Shane Sams.
Sams, a Warner Robins alumnus, is in his first year coaching the Demons. The win was the seventh consecutive victory in the rivalry for Warner Robins and its first win of the season. Drenched in Gatorade, the Demons lifer smiled as he discussed the decades-old rivalry after notching his first victory in it.
“That’s what Northside-Warner Robins is,” he said. “There’s not many players or coaches that will get to play or coach in a game like this … it was loud, it was crazy.”
Warner Robins could hardly muster any points in the first half, scoring only one field goal on offense and getting a safety off of a bad Northside snap. The Eagles capitalized on a sloppy first half that featured 11 penalties, meanwhile, as tricky rushing formations and a few stellar passes from quarterback Damien Dee gave them a 21-5 lead at the break.
“We felt that we were being more physical than them … we had the ball on their side of the field, we just weren’t executing,” Sams said. “I told ‘em, ‘We’re playing better, we’re playing better, we just gotta finish the game.’ ”
The tone of the game shifted completely when Sams subbed in towering quarterback Judd Anderson, a Miami commit who transferred from nearby Jones County just four days prior to the game, near the end of the third quarter.
Anderson overthrew some passes, but the 6-foot-6 playmaker eventually tamed his nerves to engineer the comeback for the Demons. The entire team played with a different enthusiasm in the second half, as Warner Robins used sheer will to block two field goals on the road to victory.
Northside had several chances to win, seemingly coming within inches of stopping the Demons on each of their crunch-time possessions. Even after Warner Robins scored on its first drive of the second half, the Eagles needed only one play — a dazzling 40-yard rushing score from Dee — to answer on the ensuing drive.
Then the game began to unravel. Northside intercepted the Demons on their next drive but couldn’t capitalize, punting it right back and letting Warner Robins cut further into the lead.
Then a fumble deep in their own territory, the Eagles’ first turnover all year, gave Warner Robins great field position to executive a surprising halfback swing pass for a touchdown. The Demons pulled within three.
The Eagles drove downfield, determined to put a stop to the comeback. They lined up for a field goal that was blocked by star Warner Robins receiver Cam Flowers, his second block of the game, and returned by the Demons to take the lead with about eight minutes to play.
Northside wasn’t dead yet, as it got the ball back and marched downfield in six minutes, scoring a touchdown to take the lead back.
Even on the Demons’ final drive, a fumble by a wide receiver looked like it would stave off the comeback, but the ball squeezed out from underneath an Eagles defender as he attempted to recover it in open space. Warner Robins players fell on the pigskin and went on the score the go-ahead touchdown.
After a 15-yard sack of Dee on their final drive, the Eagles succumbed to the Warner Robins rally. Northside moves to 2-1 on the year, while the Demons are 1-1 after the win.
Other scores
- Perry 54, Jones County 21
- Northeast 27, Fitzgerald 13
- Ware County 48, Baldwin 20
- Southwest 54, Pike County 7
- Houston County 55, West Laurens 14
- Westside 26, Morrow 0
- Mary Persons 23, Trinity Christian 20
- Upson Lee 41, Worth County 7
- ACE 55, Pataula Charter 8
- Wilkinson County 30, Crawford County 6
- FPD 47, Brookstone 28
- Tattnall 54, Athens-Christian 14
- Stratford 57, Riverside Military 14
- Brentwood 28, GMC Prep 13
This story was originally published September 1, 2023 at 11:48 PM.