Thomasville Bulldogs intercept Dougherty’s Region Title Hopes

ALBANY — The Thomasville Bulldog defense intercepted three Kameron Davis passes Thursday night and claimed first place in the race for the Region 1-AAA football championship by beating the Dougherty Trojans 35-20 at Hugh Mills Stadium.

Even if Thomasville (6-3) falls in the final game of the regular season and Dougherty (8-1) beats Carver (5-2), both teams would end the season with one region loss — and the head-to-head tiebreaker would give Thomasville the edge. Dougherty must beat Carver to claim the second seed heading into the playoffs.

“We just missed out on the opportunities we had and did not take advantage of them,” said Dougherty head coach Johnny Gilbert.

It took the Bulldogs less than two minutes to put points on the board, The Bulldogs took the opening kickoff to midfield and scored moments later with a 23-yard touchdown pass from freshman quarterback Camren Hill to Cole Shaw. The Trojans responded with their first possession. Davis connected with Jacob Stallworth to move the ball across midfield and after the Bulldog defense stopped the Trojans and set up a 4th and 2, Stallworth broke through for a gain down to the six to set up first and goal from the six. Davis outran the Bulldogs to the goal line a couple of plays later.

The Bulldog coaches realized early that Hill was going to have a hard time with drop-back passes against Dougherty’s defensive front, so Hill began taking one step back and throwing short passes quickly to the right side of the field. One of the first ones ended up being a 63-yard play that ended in the end zone and gave the Bulldogs a 14-7 lead.

The Trojans responded again, but it took a fourth-down fake punt to make it happen. The Trojans were facing a fourth-and-long situation at their own 44-yard line. Davis went back to punt but took off running and picked up 30 yards to the 26 of Thomasville. On third down, Davis launched a perfect pass to Larry Lane as he raced toward the end zone and the Trojans tied it up.

It looked as though the Trojans had gotten a major break when the Dougherty defense blocked a Thomasville punt and the ball was caught by Dougherty’s Octovius Griffin at the Thomasville nine-yard line. But Thomasville picked off their first pass of the night on the next play, then drove 80 yards using quick, short passes to the sidelines and scored again to make it 21-14. As the Trojans tried to respond just before the half, the Trojans got down to the 12-yard line after two passes to Stallworth and another one to Lane. But Thomasville’s Jay Randall picked off another Davis pass and raced down the field. After a penalty was assessed on the play, Thomasville had possession at Dougherty’s 26-yard line and scored again with less than 20 seconds remaining in the half to lead 28-14.

The Bulldogs stretched their lead to 35-14 before the Trojans scored their final touchdown. Stallworth took the kickoff back just across midfield and scored a few plays later on a 32-yard run.

The Dougherty defense kept the Bulldogs out of the end zone and Dougherty was looking to move again when Thomasville’s DJ Thurman picked off the third Dougherty pass of the night and secured the win for the Bulldogs.

The Trojans will travel to Columbus to take on Carver next Thursday. Kickoff is planned for 7 p.m.

Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]