Warner Robins football wins over Perry for the first time in 60 years

WARNER ROBINS — The Warner Robins Demons (7-3, 3-2 Region 1-4A) beat the Perry Panthers (7-3, 4-1 Region) for the first time in 60 years on Friday.

It came down to the final seconds as Warner Robins barely squeaked a 35-yard field goal attempt over the crossbar with 0.4 seconds remaining to win 27-24, capping a back-and-forth game dominated by the defenses.

This was the first time the two teams have played since 1965 (Perry won 18-14) despite being 14 miles apart. The last time the Demons won was in 1964, a 12-7 final.

It was a hard-fought game for both teams, but Warner Robins executed and came out on top, something head coach Shane Sams knew they could do all year.

“The biggest thing we’ve preached all year long, in our losses, we felt that we had beat ourselves. Dropped passes, penalties, have just put us in a situation that we weren’t able to win those games,” Sams said. “I told all the kids, ‘You got the region champs, if we execute and play ball, you’ll beat the region champs and prove to everybody that you should have been the region champs if we executed all year long.’”

“I just want to make sure I speak very highly of [Perry head coach] Kevin Smith and his program and the job he does,” Sams added. “What they are as a program, what they are as a team is because of Kevin Smith’s leadership of the team.”

Here are three observations:

PHOTOS: See more shots from Friday’s action.

1. The guts on 32

Perry gave the ball to Warner Robins with three minutes left on 4th-and-4 from around midfield, and the Demons never gave it back.

Rasean Dinkins nearly singlehandedly moved the ball for Warner Robins, as Skyler Williams found him twice for a first down to get to the Panthers’ 32-yard line.

Soon after, Dinkins found himself in open field as he dashed 30 yards for a touchdown, but a holding call brought the play back with 59 seconds left.

After a few missed deep shots and off-target throws, a defensive pass interference call helped bring the Demons to the Perry 18-yard line, where they decided to go for game with 4.5 seconds left.

Warner Robins brought kicker Jabez Htoo out, and after two being iced by two timeouts, the ball just snuck over the center of the crossbar to put the Demons ahead 27-24 with 0.4 seconds remaining.

“He did a great job coming out there in a clutch moment,” Sams said of Htoo. “I really think the timeouts helped him, because he’s a soccer player, he don’t really know what’s going on. Second thing, the team just pumping him up, getting him going, and the support from the team was huge for him to go out and make that field goal.”

2. Defensive lines won their battles

Both defenses made plays at every level on Friday, but the defensive lines in particular won their battles consistently throughout the night.

Chayden Barber and the Perry defensive line routinely met Williams in the backfield and ensured there were no lanes for him to scramble up the middle. Just about any time Warner Robins tried to run up the gut, a host of Panthers defenders were there to ensure it wasn’t a productive one.

On the other side, Isaiah Gibson and the Demons’ defensive line also got after the quarterback and held runners in check for the most part.

Cullen McDaniel and Reid Ginn both faced pressure several times, and Gibson even delivered a shot to Ginn in the first quarter on third down.

It came down to big plays for both offenses, because neither one could get anything consistently for all 48 minutes.

“All night they played extremely well. We practiced those things…when we execute and do things, we win games,” Sams said.

3. Pass…why would we do that?

If you love high-octane passing offenses, Warner Robins versus Perry was not the game for you.

However, if you’re a fan of running the football and dominant defenses, you were in paradise.

It wasn’t a surprise that two teams whose offense is built off of running the football ran it as much as they did, and there were big plays through the air, but for the majority of the night the quarterbacks got some great reps practicing their handoffs.

With the defenses playing as well as they did, though, it didn’t make for a lot of productive drives for either team.

Perry opened the scoring with a 40-yard touchdown run from Decorrion Daniels, but that was their only rushing touchdown of the evening.

McDaniel found Kiel Sparks on a 19-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, and in the fourth quarter he found Kory Pettigrew wide open in the end zone to make it 24-17 Perry.

To give credit to both teams, Ahmad Gordon had several runs that could have gone for touchdowns, but the Demons’ last line of defense tripped him up at the second level several times.

The only passing touchdown for Warner Robins was a ball that Williams high-pointed to Dinkins in the right corner of the end zone with Andrew Battle in coverage. Dinkins rose above Battle and came down with the contested catch to tie the game at 24 with five minutes to play.

UP NEXT

Perry will host St. Pius X Catholic (7-3) from the Atlanta area’s Region 5-4A on Friday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Warner Robins will travel to Marist (10-0), the Region 5-4A champion, on Friday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m.