Callaway, WR Demons roll past Richmond Hill; next round at Kell in Cobb Co.

(Tickets for the Warner Robins-Kell game are $12 and will be sold today [Wednesday] from 11-5 in the front office at the school.)

Marquez Callaway couldn’t have came up any bigger than he did on Friday for Warner Robins High in their 42-28 second-round playoff win against Richmond Hill.

In only his first season playing high school football, the sophomore wide receiver/defensive back accomplished something that not many football players could say they have. In a span of 10 seconds, Callaway scored the first two touchdowns of the game, first a 40-yard pass from senior quarterback Caden Johnston, and then he picked off Richmond Hill quarterback Nick Fitzgerald to give the Demons a 14-0 first-quarter lead.

“It’s amazing and it’s one of my first experiences, especially being a sophomore and my first season really,” Callaway said. “I felt good and I just kept my head up and had fun out there. Everything worked my way.”

The Demons dominated the early portion of the game after Callaway’s two scores and a seven-yard TD run from Johnston to take a 21-6 halftime lead.

After two more scores coming from Callaway’s 33-yard TD reception and a 33-yard fumble recovery returned for a touchdown by Shamiar Mitchell, Richmond Hill started to mount a big comeback after being down 35-6 at the end of the third quarter.

After a touchdown from the Wildcats running back Ronnie Harris, head coach Lyman Guy decided to have his special teams unit do an onside kick over the next two possessions; they recovered both. Those recoveries led to Fitzgerald throwing two touchdown passes to Michael Clark, which made it with a one score game with less than 10 minutes left in regulation.

Despite, the hiccup, head coach Bryan Way’s team was able to create another key scoring drive with running back Danny Hite Jr.’s one-yard touchdown run giving Warner Robins a two-score lead. To ice it, kicker Matt Monday added a 33-yard field goal.

“It was a total team effort,” Way said “We played good in ever phase of the team expect special teams. That ball is spinning around and it bounces some crazy ways. We had some problems fielding it, but it was a lot more stress than we needed it to be. But I am very proud of our whole team.

“Great job by our kickoff return and we got the ball out to about midfield and the offense just four and five yarded them to death there and got 12 plays and five minutes off the clock. That iced the game for us.”

Way credits his team’s running attack for allowing the Demons to have a successful offensive night. The Demons were able to net 224 yards on 45 carries, which was 4.9 yards per carry. Johnston ended the game going 7-of-12 passing for 107 yards and two touchdowns.

Defensively, WRHS came up with four fumble recoveries. Way said that his defense made all the right plays in the game.

“I don’t know why we are creating so many turnovers but I am glad we are and have been very opportunistic on defense,” he said. “We caused a lot of those turnovers tonight by being physical and really doing a good job hitting those guys and forcing a lot of those fumbles. I am proud of defense.”

The Demons will head to face Kell High in Cobb County this Friday for the quarterfinal round.

“We just have to continue to improve and take care of our business,” Way said. “We are going to game plan for them and study them on film. But we can’t control Kell, only control Warner Robins.”

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