Houston County looks to avoid letdown after milestone win

WARNER ROBINS -- Mondays have a pretty bad rap.

But when teams win a huge football game and have two days away from schoolmates, Mondays are good.

The task then becomes making sure that Monday and the congratulations and back-patting that go with it under such circumstances are in the rearview mirror by Monday afternoon.

That's when practice starts, and Monday practices are about the upcoming Friday, not the one that just passed.

That was the situation for Houston County, which moved up to No. 3 in the Georgia Sports Writers Association poll after topping then No. 1 Northside 34-13 last week.

"We're fighting it," Houston County head coach Von Lassiter said. "Everybody fights it. You can say, 'No, we're back to business.' We try to be. You can say that all you want."

The Bears broke a lifetime 0-17 record against the Eagles, the defending Region 2-AAAAA and Class AAAAA champions, so the celebration was destined to last. For the players, it lasted until Monday, which is when full preparation started for the playoffs and Friday night's visit by South Effingham.

"They play extremely hard," Lassiter said. "They're really good up front on offense, but they really play hard."

The Mustangs are 7-3 and finished 5-3 in the region. The losses came to the top three teams in the region by an average of 14 points. They lost to No. 8 Coffee 34-12 on the road in early October and enter the playoffs on a two-game losing streak, 36-13 to Ware County and 21-14 to No. 10 Glynn Academy.

The Mustangs are 1-1 against playoff teams in non-region play. They beat Jenkins 45-12, with Jenkins finishing 7-3 and losing 30-21 to Cook in a Region 1-AAA crossover. South Effingham beat Southeast Bulloch 37-13, with the Yellow Jackets topping Appling County in a Region 1-AAA crossover to make the postseason.

Head coach Donnie Revell is 30-33 in his sixth season as head coach at South Effingham, which is making its first playoff trip since 2012, when it won two postseason games, including 43-33 over Westside in the first round. Revell was promoted after nine years as an assistant.

The Mustangs bring some balance to town, with about 206.6 rushing and 148.7 passing yard a game. Quarterback Tyler Pullum is 109-for-175 for 1,487 yards and 15 touchdowns, Marcus Boyd (29 catches, 417 yards) his top target.

Patrick Brown has 1,474 yards rushing, while Pullum is next with about 250.

"The quarterback can really go," Lassiter said. "He can throw it, and they've got a couple skill guys that can go get it. They're a spread team, but the quarterback runs it more than you would think."

Linebacker Makenzy Newbill leads the defense with more than 100 tackles. The Mustangs gave up 310 rushing yards last week and suffered several sacks of Pullum.

"They play a lot of guys both ways," said Lassiter, whose team is fairly deep in about every area. "They're going to bring a lot of pressure."

Houston County quarterback Jake Fromm has passed for 2,882 yards and 25 touchdowns this season. He is now at 7,618 career yards, good for 13th all-time in Georgia.

The defense, however, was the star last week, keeping Northside quarterback Tobias Oliver and the Eagles' offense in check.

"I was really glad that we could stop them," Lassiter said. "I mean, consistently, first of all. I was just so thankful that we could stop them consistently."

Houston County won both home playoff games last year, 55-34 over LaGrange and 43-12 over Sequoyah. Those were the program's first home playoff games, taking the pressure off of that milestone.

The new pressure is from finally knocking off Northside, taking the city and county championship and being atop the mountain. Now comes the pressure of building on that.

"It's like I told our guys," Lassiter said. "We could have lost last week, and we're gonna play this week. It would be a different stadium and a different team, but we will still be playing. If you don't win this week, then you're going to be putting your stuff up on Monday."

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 7:41 PM with the headline "Houston County looks to avoid letdown after milestone win ."