Warner Robins football seals road victory over Veterans with 99-yard pick six

WARNER ROBINS — Warner Robins (3-2) was in danger of falling to Veterans (2-3) for the first time in series history on Friday, but they engineered a scoring drive that left 1:33 on the clock and finished the game with a 99-yard pick six to take down the Warhawks 27-17 ahead of region play.

Three observations:

The drive that won the game

Before Warner Robins took over on what would be their final drive Veterans’ David Drake knocked a 45-yard field goal in to take the Warhawks’ third lead 17-15 with seven minutes left.

Penalties, turnovers and a solid showing by the Veterans defense kept the Demons from having extended, productive drives. A big fumble recovery on the Warhawks’ 39-yard line set up their first score and an 83-yard touchdown pass to X’Zavier Cannon gave them the lead before halftime.

Outside of that, until that final drive, they hadn’t been able to gain much momentum.

“These kids are awesome. These kids are so fun to coach, they’re so fun to be around. I love every minute of ‘em because they fight,” Warner Robins head coach Shane Sams said. “You see how hard they fight. They keep going all the time, they play well together. I mean, this is just a really fun football team.”

That fight manifested itself on the field for five minutes in the fourth quarter as the Demons marched 53 yards for the go-ahead score.

A great kickoff return started the possession at their own 47-yard line and soon they were faced with 4th-and-1.

Chandler Dyson tucked it and barely punched through for a first down after taking some lumps from the defense.

He went out for a play, on which Veterans linebacker Lincoln Goode stuffed the Demons for a three-yard tackle for a loss. They very next, though, Dyson found Cannon on a short pass down to the Warhawks’ 18-yard line.

A few plays later sophomore running back Jaden Hill ran it in for the go-ahead score with 1:33 left. With AJ Alexander and CJ Gunnings out, Hill got a lot more playing time in the backfield. He showed some flashes against Fayette County, and with the timetable on the other two uncertain, he’ll likely be asked to step in long term.

“We feel like our running room is deep and we got a lot of good running backs, and that showed tonight,” Sams said. “We got after it and showed a lot of good things. I mean, our offense is still trying to find [our cohesion]…but they play hard and they get after it and we’re excited about those guys.”

The Warhawks somehow converted a 4th-and-long with a miracle shot to Mouhamadou Mane over the middle of the field, and they advanced into Demon territory with under a minute to play.

Veterans took several shots downfield in an attempt to get into the end zone, needing a touchdown down 21-17. However, one final heave with three seconds left ended up in the hands of Jamarcus Allen and he returned it 99 yards for a touchdown for the 27-17 final.

No moral victories

Veterans has played a lot of close games this season, which is something you couldn’t say a year ago, but head coach Steven DeVoursney is not a big fan of moral victories.

The Warhawks led three times against Warner Robins and looked to win for the first time in series history, but penalties constantly backed them up on offense and they couldn’t overcome that.

Tylan Glover broke off 73- and 68-yard touchdown runs for the bulk of Veterans’ points, but outside of that the Warhawks weren’t able to consistently move the ball.

They say close only matters in horseshoes and hand grenades, and DeVoursney is looking for real, tangible victories.

“We just make too many mistakes, that’s our biggest problem,” DeVoursney said. “We’re not doing what we’re coached to do and we got to fix that. Our schedule don’t get any easier from here on out, it gets tougher and tougher. We know it’s moral victories but we want real victories.”

A turnover problem

A win is a win, but Warner Robins has a turnover problem.

They’ve turned the ball over eight times in the last two games, including three on Friday.

The first was a fumble by Dyson — a Warhawks defender hit the ball with his helmet and poked it free on the first drive of the game. The next was dropped by Ezra Goings on the second drive, who had a 61-yard touchdown in front of him had he not lost the ball.

The third was a severely underthrown pass by Dyson that ended up in Deric Ingram Jr’s hands in the fourth quarter. That led to Veterans’ field goal to take the lead.

As proved two weeks ago against Houston County, if Warner Robins can’t get the turnovers under control they will not beat good teams.

Not only that, but penalties continue to be an issue as well. These facts aren’t lost on Sams, who has these things high on his priority list as they enter region play next week.

“They’re highly important,” Sams said. “One thing we gotta focus on, like I said, we talked about with so many injuries that we got, putting new kids out there, we’re still trying to find that cohesiveness and that’s taking some time. And that’s a main focus, and that’s a main thing we’re going into practice with that we gotta get better. Because this game’s completely different if those first two drives we don’t have those mistakes.”

UP NEXT

Warner Robins enters region play with a winning record for the second year in a row, and first on the slate is Wayne County on the road on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m. The Yellow Jackets are in between coaches at the time of writing, with John Mohring and Wayne County agreeing to part ways after an 0-5 start. During his tenure the Yellow Jackets were 1-14.

Veterans’ schedule doesn’t get any easier as they take on Houston County next week as the visitors on Friday, Sept. 26 at 7:30 p.m.