Pace Academy powers its way past Macon County

Montezuma -- Pace Academy has taken on a road warrior mentality since the playoffs started three weeks ago.

The Knights controlled the line of scrimmage with their size advantage for much of the night in another playoff road game, knocking off Macon County 33-26 on Friday to advance to the semifinals of the GHSA Class AA playoffs.

"Pace Academy is a physically bigger team than we are," Macon County head coach Dexter Copeland said. "We hurt ourselves a few times and shot ourselves in the foot with some penalties in the first half, and we couldn't recover."

Penalties and miscues hampered Macon County on several drives as it accumulated six penalties for a total of 65 yards in the first half.

On the first drive of the game, after two penalties for a total of 25 yards backed Macon County inside its own 10-yard line, Bulldogs quarterback K'Hari Lane was flagged for intentional grounding in his own end zone, resulting in a safety.

Pace Academy pushed its lead to 9-0 after being given another opportunity at a third-down play after Macon County accepted a holding penalty against the Pace Academy offense on third down. If Macon County declined the penalty, the Knights more than likely would have kicked a field goal. After converting a first down on the very next play, Pace Academy running back Realus George punched the ball across the goal line from a yard out.

"It was a staff decision, and our defensive coordinator felt good in backing them up there," Copeland said. "That was a blown coverage call, one of the two in the first half, but if I had to do it all over again, I would probably decline the penalty and let (Pace Academy) kick the field goal."

Macon County responded on the next drive with a Akeevious McLendon 3-yard touchdown run, but as it did the entire night, Pace Academy answered, this time on a 37-yard scoring pass from Gunnor Faulk to Tony Addison. And just before the half, Faulk hit Trey Blount for a 15-yard score to go into halftime leading 23-13.

The Bulldogs cut their deficit to 23-20 on a fourth-and-goal from the 9 as Lane hit Trey Mathis in the end zone, and after Pace Academy added a touchdown and field goal on its next two drives to push its lead to 33-20, Lane found a streaking Keldrick Thomas for an 8-yard touchdown pass to cut the Bulldogs' deficit to just seven points.

Pace Academy iced the game after recovering an ensuing onside kick.

"Our guys fought as hard as they could," Copeland said. "They really did. We were outmanned all night. Two big plays in the first half got us, and penalties just hurt us. But we'll be back. We return 10 starters on offense and nine on defense. We'll be back."

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 11:50 PM with the headline "Pace Academy powers its way past Macon County ."