Four different Veterans High Warhawks (including one on the defense) scored touchdowns Thursday in a 31-6 handling of Rutland High’s Hurricanes at the Ed DeFore Complex in Macon. With the win, head coach David Bruce saw his team go to 2-0 in Region 2-AAAA for the first time in its four-year history.
Now with the regular season halfway done, the 2-3 Warhawks are halfway to the school record in region wins and wins overall, which was set in the 2011 season.
Coming off a significant upset of Westside High in Perry the previous Thursday, Veterans was back on the field again the one day before the customary ‘Friday night’ against an unbeaten Rutland team under former Perry and Houston County High head coach George Collins. A major question going in centered around the potential impact of Division I prospect receiver Shakenneth Williams.
As it turns out, Williams scored a touchdown catching the football, but it was a rare occasion for him touching the ball against the Warhawk defense. For one thing, Veterans had numerous tackles for lost yards. That included two sacks on quarterback Tim Northcutt by Veterans’ own top college prospect, tackle Cortez Broughton.
On the opening series of the entire game, Broughton had a sack for seven lost yards at the best time to do it, third down. With that three-and-out, Williams and his teammates were off the field and Nick Anderson of the visiting team returned a punt to the Hurricane 40-yard-line.
As Bruce saw his offense do so successfully against the Westside Seminoles, the Warhawks established a running game with not two backs, but three carrying the load. It began, though, with Ben Thomas going five times up to the 16. The drive stalled on the 12, and sure-footed senior kicker Tim Yaclin connected on a 29-yard field goal.
The remainder of the first quarter was about the teams trading punts, even though Rutland was able to string some first downs together on its next series.
Early in the second period, the Hurricanes began on its own 20 and used senior back Montez Chaney to advance 20 more yards. However, thanks to a stick on Chaney by linebacker Matthew Hurst, it was a 4th-and-inches call for Collins at the 40.
Electing to go for it turned out to not be the best choice, for Hurst was in the backfield along with fellow linebacker Will Nobles to stop the play on the 38.
Senior Keone Pearson, in game action for the first time, helped the Veterans cause with a 10-yard pickup on his first tote. Something that would become a bit of an offensive issue, however, was center-to-quarterback exchanges. One such occurrence set the Warhawks back to the 40, but on 2nd-and-22 Anderson took a screen from quarterback Logan Byrd and made up 20 yards himself to the 20.
With the shotgun spread still in effect, Thomas took Byrd’s third-down handoff up the middle and scored the touchdown at 8:13 until halftime. Tim Yaclin’s PAT kick made it a 10-0 game.
Cornerback D.J. Rozier, on an outside run, stopped Rutland’s third-down conversion attempt a yard short on the RH 29. With that, possession turned over, and the Warhawks fielded a punt at midfield.
Desjuan Harris, one more threat out of the backfield, ran 20 yards on the first play to the 30. Two plays later (and with some yards lost due to a holding call), Byrd and Anderson hooked up one more time. This time, Anderson was wide open down field on the 10, and with nobody to stop him he was in the end zone at 5:25.
As everything was working well for the Warhawks, the defense had more success stifling the Hurricanes. Not only were there dropped passes on the ensuing series, but Nobles led a blitzing effort to sack Northcutt on third down on his own 41.
Veterans had a chance to milk off the last 2:41 of the half, but this was the only hiccup on the evening. Rutland recovered a fumble on the Warhawk 12. Chaney and Northcutt ran the ball up to the 4, and on fourth down Williams was open to catch a fade pattern and end the shutout bid (0:36).
Veterans blocked the PAT kick, so at the half the score stood at 17-6.
Broughton’s second sack took place early in the third quarter. He took away five yards, and Nobles also erased five on a drive that began on the RH 20. The punt only went to the 32, and from there Veterans not only increased the lead but took a good amount of time off the clock.
In fact, Byrd was faced with 4th-and-10 when he tucked the ball in and ran 12 yards to the 20. A few moments later, on 4th-and-5, Yaclin set up to make his second field goal. He did, from 32 yards, but a personal foul against the hosts allowed the Warhawks to keep driving from the 7.
On 3rd-and-goal from the 3, Pearson scored, and Yaclin had his third PAT to make it 24-6 at 2:55.
In the fourth quarter, Jamar Simmons made his name known, first with a sack of Northcutt and then with every defensive player’s dream: a touchdown. His team’s offense was stagnant the rest of the game due to low snaps and penalties, not to mention a botched field goal try.
But on Rutland’s next play after the missed 3, Simmons picked up Northcutt’s fumble and scored with 3:40 left.
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