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GWA wins state championship
Published November 29, 2009
ALBANY - In its final football game as a member of the Georgia Independent School Association, George Walton Academy took home as a parting gift the 2009 Class AAA state championship with a resounding 42-24 win over Deerfield-Windsor at Webb Memorial Stadium Friday night.
A large contingent of GWA faithful, easily matching and possibly outnumbering the local fans cheering for the home team, braved the long trek to southwest Georgia and a cold and blustery night. They were rewarded with the Bulldogs most complete effort of the season against the GISA’s top-ranked team and defending state champs.
“Our defense has done it all year,” said GWA Head Coach Don Williams. “But our offense really came around the last three of four weeks.”
The Bulldogs six touchdowns were the second largest scoring outburst of the season.
During its four-game playoff run, GWA averaged 31 points a game, bettering by a touchdown and two-point conversion, its 23-point regular-season average.
Meanwhile, the defense and special teams came up big in the postseason. The Bulldogs shutout Southland in round one, blocked an extra point to preserve a win over Stratford in the quarterfinals, and made a fourth-quarter goal-line stand to hold off Tattnall in the semifinals.
But they saved their best effort for last against the GISA’s most explosive offense, which was averaging 36 points a game, led by senior running back Tony Zenon, who had rushed for 2,142 and scored 26 touchdowns before Friday night.
Zenon closed out his illustrious career with 254 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns. He scored on a 68-yard pass reception in the first quarter and a 55-yard run on the last play of his career in the fourth quarter.
But in between, he was easily overshadowed by GWA’s big-play trio, which ran over, around and through the Knights defense all night long.
Juniors Eric Dobbs, Justin Brown and Michael Peek combined for 279 yards on 36 carries. Dobbs and Brown each had three touchdowns while Peek’s 49-yard scoring run was nullified by a holding call.
The three transferred to GWA from Grayson High School this fall and provided a key ingredient the Bulldogs had been missing in previous years.
“In the past, we’ve always been know as a power dive type of team and defenses would crowd the middle against us,” said GWA assistant coach Kevin Cloud. “But these guys gave us the speed to get on the edge and forced other teams to have to pick where to play us.”
It was on full display Friday night. On the Bulldogs first series, Dobbs carried three times for 58 yards, including a 47-yard burst up the middle for a touchdown. He added two more touchdowns on runs of seven and four yards and finished with 121 yards on 15 carries.
Brown, who missed the Bulldogs season-opening win over Deerfield in late August, was primed for a big game.
“I kept hearing about Zenon all week, and I wanted to try keep up with him and show that I was a good player too,” Brown said.
He did, scoring twice on runs of three and 25 yards and finishing with 67 yards on eight carries. But his biggest play came on defense midway through the third quarter with Deerfield threatening to get back in the game.
Trailing 21-10 at intermission, the Knights took the kickoff to open the second half and began moving steadily downfield on the shifty legs of a rejuvenated Zenon.
But on fourth and three from GWA’s 35, the Knights decided to go to the air to their 6-foot-6 receiver Reggie Brown. Despite giving up eight inches in height, GWA’s Brown outleaped the receiver, pulled down an interception and raced 74 yards for a touchdown.
It was GWA’s third interception - Cord Gunnin and Matt Corder had the others - and proved to be the final blow to a Deerfield squad that was beaten down by a more physical GWA team. The Bulldogs attempted and completed just one pass the entire game.
“Our line is our strength, and we felt like we could run right at them,” Williams said.
The win secured a fourth GISA football championship for GWA (11-3), which will move to the Georgia High School Association next fall. The loss snapped a 10-game winning streak for the Knights (12-3).
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