Mary Persons goes down to the wire to hold off Upson-Lee

Mary Persons head coach Brian Nelson didn’t see his defense’s game-saving play Friday night against Upson-Lee.

But when Nelson saw his defenders running off the field and one of them was holding the ball, he knew something good must have happened.

It most certainly did.

Antoine Davis’ interception at the 1-yard line with four seconds left sealed Mary Persons’ 28-21 win in a wild and crazy GHSA Region 2-4A game.

The Bulldogs improve to 5-2 overall and 2-0 in the region, while the Knights fell to 3-3 overall in their region opener.

Three who mattered

J.T. Hartage: The Bulldogs’ junior quarterback completed 19-of-29 passes for 289 yards and four touchdown passes.

Deadrek Alford: The Mary Persons wide receiver caught nine passes for 164 yards and a touchdown.

Ladamion Sands: Sands had two catches, but both of them went for 13-yard touchdowns, including the game-winner with 7:40 to play.

Observations

Short field: With the game tied at 21, Mary Persons got the ball back after an Upson-Lee punt and a personal foul penalty at the Knights’ 20. The Bulldogs took six plays to regain the lead on Hartage’s second touchdown pass to Sands.

Tough sledding: Upson-Lee’s monstrous defensive front made things tough on the Bulldogs’ running game, which managed just 81 yards on 30 carries.

Worth mentioning

Strange happenings: Mary Persons ran six plays for 68 yards (including a 62-yard scoring pass) in the second quarter and scored 14 points. The Bulldogs ran 20 plays for 134 yards in the third quarter and scored no points.

They said it

Mary Persons head coach Brian Nelson on Hartage’s play: “He threw it exceptionally well, but they’ve got a tough front seven, and it was going to be hard to run the ball against them, so some things opened up in the passing game. We had a couple of other things that were there, and we just couldn’t finish the play off.”

Nelson on Davis’ interception: “I was over here, and I was blocked by everything. I was like, ‘What happened? What happened? Who did what?’ The next thing you know, they’re running off the field, so I guess something good happened. I’ll have to see it on tape.”

What’s next?

Mary Persons hosts West Laurens on Oct. 20.

This story was originally published October 6, 2017 at 11:40 PM with the headline "Mary Persons goes down to the wire to hold off Upson-Lee."