Demons fall to Bears in county matchup

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — The Warner Robins Demons (2-3, 1-0 Region 2-5A) faced off against county rival Houston County Bears (5-0) on Friday night, but fell in a 41-7 final.

There were positive moments, particularly for the defense, but overall the Demons just couldn’t get it done against one of the best teams in 6A.

The Bears’ offense is loaded with talent, and averaging 48.6 points per game through five games on the season.

The goal against that type of team isn’t to stop them — it’s to slow them down.

On the early downs, the Demons found some success on that. It was third and fourth down that gave them trouble.

After the game, that was one thing head coach Shane Sams made note of.

“We’ve got to capitalize. We didn‘t make plays when we needed to. It was simple as that,” Sams said. “We got them where we wanted them and then we didn‘t make plays and we didn‘t score on offense when we needed to.”

Those late down situations saw the Bears stretch the field. In some cases it ended with quarterback Antwann Hill Jr. getting caught behind the sticks, like the end of their first drive.

On others it ended with a long pass to wide out Ricky Johnson, which was swiftly followed by a Kaleb Woodburn eight-yard rush to put the Bears up 14-0 with 3:58 left in the first quarter.

Another time the Demons couldn’t get off of the field on third in long came with only a couple of minutes left in the half.

After a perfect Cam Flowers punt pinned the Bears on their one-yard line, Woodburn spun around his defender on third down and took it near the 30-yard line.

Following a third-and-15 from the 25-yard line, Hill hit Ryan Taleb on a lateral who then tossed it to a wide open Johnson on the goal line, and Gavin Kurpis punched it in to put the Bears up 28-0 with only 1:26 left in the first half.

By that point it was already going to be tough for the Demons to turn on that second half magic, and with a struggling offense it was going to be even harder.

The final score tells most of the story; the only score for the Demons came on a 45-yard strike from Judd Anderson to Isaiah Canion at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Anderson had three touchdown passes to Canion the week before against Dutchtown, but against the Bears he struggled to get anything going through the air.

It was clear for much of the game the Demons wanted to get the ball in the hands of their best playmakers: Flowers, Jeremiah Jackson and Canion.

Flowers and Jackson in particular got plenty of chances with screen passes, but aside from the first few the Bears had them all figured out, and they couldn’t get much out of those.

Those screen passes also helped get the ball out of Anderson’s hands faster, as he’d been under pressure for much of the night and had to make quick decisions or throwaways.

One of those quick decisions led to an interception, and the Bears’ first score of the game.

Anderson got the ball out quick, and as his intended receiver stopped his route to come back to the ball, two Bears were waiting to pick the pass off. They took it to the 13-yard line before Johnson worked his way around a defender to go up 7-0.

The final score of the night came from Taleb, who ran it nine yards to make the final score 41-7 with 7:04 left in the game.

The Demons faced a lot of stiff competition in their non-region schedule, and also played on the road for two out of those four games.

Playing at Lee County, at home against crosstown rival Northside, away against Valdosta and finishing up at home against one of the best teams in 6A is certainly a way to put your team through a trial by fire.

Now halfway through the season, there’s still a consistent message Sams has given to his players: “We just gotta continue to work and get better. Find our mistakes of what we did, work and improve and get better every day.”

UP NEXT

The Demons will stay at home this week as they host the Ola Mustangs on Friday, Sept. 29 at 7:30 p.m.

The Mustangs are 4-0 and averaging 41.5 points per game, and have only allowed 35 total points through those four contests.

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