Four turnovers condemn Houston County in 31-7 loss to Thomas County Central

Houston County made the trip to Thomasville on Friday for what turned out to be a Region 2-5A championship night, but not for the Bears.

As head coach Jeremy Edwards gathered up his players for the post-game huddle, Thomas County Central popped confetti and celebrated their third region championship in four years under Justin Rogers after the 31-7 final.

After talking with his team Edwards addressed the game — their performance, their shortcomings, his message to the players — but he was also a little lost for words.

“I really don’t know what to say to be honest with you,” Edwards said. “I’m disappointed. But I also understand that, that was a really good football team that is probably favored to win it all and there’s a good chance that we’ll see them again. We’ll learn from this. When you lose, there’s always an opportunity to learn something.”

One of the things that his Bears learned that night:

“Life is not always easy. We’ve had a good start to the season, we felt like we would come in and compete. And we did compete,” Edwards said.

Defense wins championships

The saying “defense wins championships” is a saying for a reason. Thomas County Central might be proof of that at the end of the season.

The Yellow Jackets forced four turnovers and put quarterback Ryan Maxwell under pressure all night. They sacked him in the first quarter and he fumbled, and TCC’s secondary pulled down at least four interceptions, though one was called back. Of the three interceptions that stood, Maxwell was hit as he threw on one.

That’s not to mention the running game, which was nonexistent aside from a 78-yard dash from Austin Stinson to put HoCo ahead 7-3 in the first quarter.

The offensive line had trouble generating any push. There was nowhere for runners to go. It didn’t matter if it was Stinson, Colin Anderson or Javien Durham.

Even on heavy packages with linebackers Westen Ard and Jase Jordan in to block, the Bears couldn’t break through.

“In the first half I felt like we didn’t have very good field position. We were inside of the [10-yard line] several times. It’s hard when you’re playing a team that can pin their ears back and rush the quarterback the way that they can,” Edwards said.

HoCo managed to drive all the way down the field one time at the end of the first half. They got down to the four-yard line, tried a couple of wildcat runs with Ard and had a shot to the corner of the end zone broken up before they tried a field goal. As soon as the snap came through the Yellow Jackets swarmed Harrison Ludwig and his holder to block the attempt.

“As far as the game went I felt like we left some points off the board. We got down there close and came away with no points. Put our defense in a bad spot a couple times with some turnovers,” Edwards said.

But the Bears’ defense should hold their head high after Friday’s competition.

TCC never put together a complete drive, it was feast or famine. In the first quarter the Yellow Jackets got in the red zone twice — twice HoCo forced a field goal attempt. One of those missed, too, after Paul and Jercorien McCoy dragged quarterback Jaylen Johnson down for a loss on third down.

The Bears got a fourth-down stop on the first drive of the game. Explosive plays, like a long ball to University of Pittsburgh commit Jaydon Dunbar on the Yellow Jackets’ next drive, were the only way TCC could get in scoring position.

Dunbar came down with an absurd, one-handed catch in the second to set up Wake Forrest commit Christian “Deuce” Lawrence’s touchdown run. Lawrence got off another explosive play with a 66-yard touchdown run to put the Yellow Jackets up 17-7.

Before the half Maxwell’s third turnover gave TCC the ball on the Bears’ 14-yard line. HoCo went into the break down 24-7. The Yellow Jackets only scored one more time in the second half.

One game doesn’t define you

Edwards’ biggest, overarching message after the loss to TCC was that one game doesn’t define you.

Friday’s loss will not define the Bears’ season, unless they let it. Maxwell’s four-turnover game will not define his season or the rest of his career.

“One game doesn’t define you, that’s for sure,” Edwards said on his sophomore. “He played a really, really good football team, a really, really good defense. I think they’re the top defense in the state at least in this [classification]. They’re up there in all classes, I think giving up six points a game.”

“He’ll learn from it. He’s a resilient kid. He got beat up a little bit, he’s gonna be sore in the morning. But it’s one of those deals. We got a lot to play for still. We play Lee County next week at home for a chance to get a home playoff game and that’s a big deal for us.”

Edwards emphasized that continuing to build and learning from experiences like these are important. He’ll be ready for his team to come in with a winning attitude on Monday as they begin preparation for Lee County.