Ocilla — Battle-tested Wilcox staved off up-and-coming Irwin County 28-21 in a Friday night bail-biter that coupled with Telfair County’s 29-21 upset of Charlton County put the Patriots in position to repeat as Region 2-A champs.

“It was two good football teams going at it in a well-played game,” victorious coach Mark Ledford said on the heels of an outcome that bettered Wilcox’s record to 7-2 overall, 5-1 in league play.

“You’ve got to hand it to (Irwin) coach (Jon) Lindsey and his team as they are well deserving of being one of the top teams in our region. They’re solid, sound and very talented so we feel fortunate to have come out on top in a game that could well have gone either way.”

Wilcox, which must beat Telfair in order to win region, never trailed in what proved to be a see-saw duel. On the other hand, it never held a lead that looked totally comfortable right up until the final two minutes of play.

The Patriots, who were ending a grueling three-game road swing, drew first scoring blood, by taking the opening kickoff and marching 65 yards in 11 snaps. The payoff came on Makail Grace’s 11-yard pass to Jonathan Howard.

In leading Wilcox to that TD, Grace had runs of 14, 9 and 12 yards and completions of 6 and 12 before hurling the six-pointer to Howard who came into the scrap with a state-high 1,007 receiving yards.

That tandem connected again in the second stanza on a pass play covering 12 yards and capping a 72-yard, 12-snap march during which the Pats twice moved the chains on fourth down.

The first came courtesy of the Indians who drew a 15-yard personal foul walk-off for barking out signals in an effort to draw an illegal procedure call on Wilcox. Instead, the penalty moved the ball to the Irwin 32.

Later on 4th-and-2, Grace kept for four yards before hooking up with Howard for the TD. Robert Carrillo, who would hit on all four of his PAT kicks, made it 14-0 9:36 before halftime.

At that point, some fans in attendance may have been thinking the Patriots were on their way to another decisive triumph. Not so, though, as Irwin would quickly prove.

Starting from their own 27, the Indians drove 73 yards in 10 plays to cut their deficit to 14-7 at the half. The payoff came on Clay Paulk’s 15 yard pass to Ryan Peterson who made a leaping grab on what Ledford labeled “a good throw and great catch.”

Things really got interesting when the home team took the second half kickoff and went on a 63-yard drive all by ground to knot matters at 14. Peterson’s 21-yard run launched the march that ended on Robert Moore’s 7-yard step-off.

Wilcox responded with a 74-yard, 13-play thrust during which Maurice Edwards rambled for 21 yards and a first down at the Irwin 48. Then on 4th-and-6 from the 44, Grace made a gamble pay off by picking up nine yards to the 35.

From there, a pass interference call on the Indians and a mixture of runs and passes all by Grace resulted in an 11-yard score by the Patriots’ quarterback with 1:10 left in the stanza.

Irwin, which came into the contest hoping to claim its first region title since 1998, responded with a drive to the Wilcox 20 where on fourth down it attempted a reverse pass that Howard picked off in the end zone.

Rather than take a touchback, Howard attempted to run the ball out on a play the Pats were penalized for an illegal block that pinned them at their 4. They could only move out to the 6 before their 34-yard punt gave the Indians the ball at the Wilcox 40.

Six plays later, Irwin got a 21-21 snarl on Antuane Merritt’s 13-yard sprint and Eric Contreras’ third perfect extra point boot with just 4:43 remaining to play.

The Patriots, who normally do a good job of living through the air, managed to do the same by land when they recovered the ensuing squib kick by the Indians at their own 45.

Seven plays later, Grace sneaked in from the 1 for the winning score after Edwards had helped get it that close with a 21-yard jaunt. Wilcox then recovered its “pooch” kick and managed to run out the final 1:51 on the clock.

“I’m proud both of the way our guys were able to toughen it out on that last drive and of our ability to do a good job pretty much all night of taking what Irwin’s defense was giving us,” Ledford said.

“With them setting up to take the deep ball away from us, we were able to hit some short passes underneath. That didn’t lead to a lot of yards, but mixed with the run it did eat some clock and got us enough points to prevail in the type game that will make both teams better in the playoffs.”

In directing the Wilcox attack, Grace wound up with a season high in personal rushes (26 for 131 yards) and a season low in passing yardage (113).

Howard, who has a shot at breaking the state record for receiving yards — 1,655 set in 2010 by Demarco Robinson of M.L. King — caught eight passes for 63 yards.



Score by Quarters

Wilcox County 7-7-7-7 — 28

Irwin County 0-7-7-7 — 21



Scoring Summary

First Quarter

7:49 W — Jonathan Howard 11 pass from Makail Grace (Roberto Carrillo kick)

Second Quarter

9:36 W — Howard 12 pass from Grace (Carrillo kick)

4:57 I — Ryan Peterson 15 pass from Clay Paulk (Eric Contreras kick)

Third Quarter

8:39 I — Robert Moore 7 run Contreras kick)

1:10 W — Grace 11 run (Carrillo kick)

Fourth Quarter

4:43 I — Antuane Merritt 13 run (Contreras kick)

1:51 W — Grace 1 run (Carrillo kick)



Team Statistics

First Downs: W 19, I 16.

Rushes-Yards: W 34-169, I 42-228.

Yards Passing: W 113, I 29.

Passes C-A-I: W 14-21-0, I 3-4-1.

Fumbles-Lost: W 0-0, I 0-0.

Punts-Average: W 2-38, I 0-0.

Penalties-Yards: W 12-84, I 4-55.



Individual Statistics

   Rushing: Wilcox — Grace 26-131, Maurice Edwards 7-39, Howard 1-(-1); Irwin — Moore 19-72, Merritt 6-55, Ryan Peterson 8-58, T.J. Wynn 5-42, Donte Studstill 2-6, Paulk 1-(-5), Jakyron Young 1-0.

   Passing: Wilcox — Grace 14-21-0 113; Irwin — Paulk 3-3-0 29, Merritt 0-1-1 0.

   Receiving: Wilcox — Howard 8-63, Quinn Tisdol 3-25, Edwards 2-15, Telly Whitfield 1-10; Irwin — Peterson 1-21, Merritt 1-7, Moore 1-1.