Vienna — Entering Friday night’s rivalry showdown in “The Grove” as the stadium here is known, Wilcox County held a Class A public school ranking (4) that was twice that of Dooly County’s (8).

Exiting the hard-hitting battle between the neighboring schools, the visiting Patriots also had twice as many points (28) as did the Bobcats thanks in large part to its aerial potency.

Led by the dynamic duo of quarterback Makail Grace and wide receiver Johnathan Howard who hooked up 13 times for pass plays that gained 211 yards and produced two scores, Wilcox posted a win that left both teams with 2-1 report cards.

“Our big-time players stepped up and made some big-time plays thanks to the way our offensive line hung in there and gave them time to do so by holding off Dooly’s big defensive front,” victorious coach Mark Ledford said.

“As the result, we were able to do some things a lot of folks thought we couldn’t against a very good Dooly team that has a shot at winning its region (4-A) championship.

“You don’t win with a one- or two-man show so the stars didn’t win this one by themselves, though, as it took all of our guys to get the job done tonight against a good Bobcats team that played its fannies off.”’

Losing mentor Jimmy Hughes likewise lauded the participants for both teams for playing as well as they did in the rivalry.

“In the end, this one boiled down to their kids making a few more big plays than ours. Their experience of having been deeper into the playoffs and having played in games like this before figured into it, too, I think.

“Now I’m hoping the experience we gained from this one will help prepare us for the games we have ahead. Now that we’ve missed out on our goal of winning them all, we’ll set a new one of going unbeaten in our region. If we do that, we’d love to see them again as I don’t think we gave them our best shot in this one.”

Wilcox took a 7-0 first period lead via an 11-play, 82-yard drive during which the key gainer was 36-yard middle screen pass from Grace to Maurice Edwards. That connection put the ball at the 3 from where Grace scored on a 3-yard run. Roberto Carrillo toed the PAT.

Later in the initial quarter, the Patriots cranked up a 60-yard, nine-snap TD march kept alive by a determined run Quinn Tisdol made to barely move the chains on a third-and-8 play to put the ball at the 17.

On the next  play, Grace floated a 17-yard pass that Howard went up and snared in the right corner of the end zone as the visitors lead grew to 14-0.

Dooly immediately got a spark on Mark Lloyd’s 74-yard kickoff return to the Patriots’ 4. Mark Clark gained 3 yards on first down and then made it into the end zone one hike later.

“Mark gave a heck of an effort on that kickoff as they (the Patriots) had their hands on him several times and their arms wrapped around him once or twice but he just wouldn’t go down,” Hughes said.

Following an exchange of punts, the Bobcats got a big break when their defensive stalwart, Montravius Adams, forced and recovered a Wilcox fumble at his own 26.

Seconds later, it became a tie game when Channin Hamilton got several good blocks from teammates and on a sprint around left end sailed 74 yards for a TD that got the big Dooly crowd back into the game. Diego Cruz booted the PAT to knot matters at 14.

“At that point, I thought we had as good a chance as they did of coming out on top,” Hughes said of the deadlock at intermission.

“I thought we backed off and lost momentum there in the second quarter,” countered Ledford who said Patriot coaches challenged their players at halftime to step up their play the rest of the way.

The Patriots did just that but not until after the teams battled to a scoreless draw during the third period when both teams came up with key pass interceptions.

Wilcox’s Damion McCormick got a pick at his own 2 before Dooly’s Kris Lundy responded with one of his own at the Bobcats’ 14.

As the third period wound down, the Patriots launched an 80-yard drive capped 1:04 into the final quarter when Grace sent Howard streaking down the left sideline and found him with a 74-yard scoring “bomb.”

In the absence of injured snapper Michael Dennard who had suffered a shoulder injury that sent him to a hospital for treatment, the Patriots successfully went for the two-point conversion on a Grace pass to Howard.

On the ensuing kickoff came the play Ledford felt may have been the key to the final outcome.

Continuing the pattern of squib kicks it had followed up to that point, the Patriots’ A.J. Sailor recovered at the Dooly 31 to set up a huge four-play scoring drive capped by Grace’s 4-yard run around left end after faking an end-around hand-off to Howard.

“Recovering that kickoff was huge as instead of Dooly getting good field position for a possible-game-tying play we wound up getting the touchdown for a two-score advantage,” Ledford said.

“Our strategy of not booting the ball deep at all paid off as we’d already given up three touchdowns on kick returns this season. If Dooly was going to beat us, they were going to have to score on our defensive unit not our kickoff return unit that has a lot of young guys on it.”

Any hopes Dooly had of coming back to win went by the boards when its next possession ended with McCormick getting credit for another interception in the end zone when a pass intended for a Bobcats’ receiver fell into his arms as he lay on the ground.

Wilcox, which had a huge 61-29 advantage in offensive plays and a 387-144 edge in total yardage, ran the remaining 7:25 off the clock to seal its win.

“We had our chances, we just didn’t take advantage of them against a pretty doggone good Wilcox team,” Hughes said. “We tried our best to cover No. 7 (Howard), who’s exception, something special.

“It’d be hard to find a better receiver than him anywhere around and in Grace he has a guy who can deliver it to him and isn’t afraid to do so even if he’s got defenders all around.

“We couldn’t get their offense off the field often enough as even in third down situations we knew where the ball was going but couldn’t stop it as that pair is sensational.

“We on the other hand struggled offensively all night long. A lot of that had to do with their defense which honestly was better than I had anticipated.

“I can’t fault our effort, though, as our kids fought hard. We went toe-to-toe with Wilcox and have nothing to be ashamed of. Our job now is to get back to work so that as I said earlier we’ll hopefully get another shot at them.”



Score by Quarters

Wilcox County 7-7-0-14 — 28

Dooly County 0-14-0-0 — 14



Scoring Summary

First Quarter

5:34 W — Makail Grace — 3 run (Robert Carrillo kick)

Second Quarter

11:14 W — Jonathan Howard 17 pass from Grace (Carrillo kick)

10:14 D — Mark Clark 1 run (Diego Cruz kick)

5:12 D — Channin Hamilton 74 run (Cruz kick)

Fourth Quarter

10:56 W — Howard 71 pass from Grace (Howard pass from Grace)

8:40 W — Grace 6 run (pass failed)



Team Statistics

First Downs: W 18, D 5.

Rushes-Yards: W 29-87, D 21-133.

Yards Passing: W 290, D 11.

Passes C-A-I: W 19-32-2, D 3-8-2.

Fumbles-Lost: W 1-1, D 0-0.

Punts-Average: W 3-26.7, D 5-35.2.

Penalties-Yards: W 10-85, D 11-122.



Individual Statistics

   Rushing: Wilcox — Grace 12-19, Howard 2-7, Maurice Edwards 11-54, Rohan Townsend 3-9, team 1-(-2); Dooly — A.J. Smith 3-22, M. Clark 9-3, C. Clark 1-(-3), Hamilton 7-106, Zachary Hooks 2-5.

   Passing: Wilcox — Grace 19-32-2 290; Dooly — Smith 3-8-2 11.

   Receiving: Wilcox — Howard 13-211, Quinn Tisdol 2-24, Edwards 3-50, Josh Jackson 1-5; Dooly — Tyrone Anderson 2-12, Lotorrance Childs 1-(-1).