FLOWERY BRANCH -- Can anyone doubt Gainesville now?
On Friday night in Flowery Branch, the top-ranked Red Elephants showed they were more than worthy of their reputation, blitzing the rival Falcons 35-0 in the first half en route to a 49-17 victory that yielded their second straight Region 7-AAA title and 23rd straight regular season victory.
“We left no doubt,” Gainesville coach Bruce Miller said.
Gainesville (10-0, 5-0 Region 7B-AAA) still has some proving to do at the state level, but they will enter the playoffs as the top seed from 7-AAA and face Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe. Flowery Branch (7-3, 4-1), will also go to the postseason but fell to fourth place in the seedings and will travel to take on Ridegland.
The Red Elephants will hope for another first-half performance like Friday’s.
Gainesville dominated on both sides of the ball over the first 24 minutes, outgaining Flowery Branch 319-170, including 199 yards rushing -- part of what Miller called their best half of the season.
The Red Elephants finished with 447 yards of offense, including 300 on the ground. Tyson Smith led Gainesville with 135 yards on nine carries and three touchdowns. Quarterback Blake Sims also had 131 yards on 11 carries.
“We felt like we could rush the football tonight,” Miller said. “And our coaches did a great job getting us prepared.”
Sims and receiver Tai-ler Jones did much of the damage on offense, combining for 200 yards and two scores in the first half. Sims finished with 260 total yards, while Jones had eight catches for 129 yards and two scores. The two also hooked up on the reverse end, as Jones completed a touchdown pass to Sims at the start of the contest.
Yet it was Gainesville’s defense that was perhaps most impressive, swarming Falcons quarterback Connor Shaw and sacking the nimble senior five times in the first half. A mixture of bliztes and tough tackling held Flowery Branch’s second leading rusher to minus-10 yards on the ground over the first half and two yards on 19 carries overall.
While Flowery Branch did finish with 387 total yards, including 316 through the air on 22 of 42 passing from Shaw, the Falcons -- who came in averaging 47 points per game -- were unable to gain any real momentum until trailing 35-0. Shaw was shut out in the first half and was also picked off by Tevin Yarbrough.
“We threw in some blitz packages, and I think we had them confused a little bit,” Gainesville linebacker Thomas Sprague said.
"Connor's a heck of a player, and that's a heck of an offense; hats off to coach [Lee] Shaw," Miller said. "But our kids fought so hard. They have all season."
On offense, the Red Elephants dipped into their bag of tricks early, negating some strong defensive play from the Falcons near their own goal line, as Jones took a reverse hand-off and lofted a 17-yard touchdown pass to Sims on fourth and 12. The score put Gainesville on the board early and kick-started an avalanche.
Gainesville running backs Smith and Teryan Rucker also made their marks in the first half -- Smith scoring on two touchdown runs and Rucker adding another. And while the Falcons defense did its best to take away Red Elephants’ runs up the middle, Gainesville found plenty of room on the outside -- most often from Sims, who either did the damage himself or made a few key last-second option pitches. His 45-yard run in the second quarter set up a 4-yard run from Smith to make it 28-0 with 6:19 left in the second quarter.
Dspite getting shut out in the first half, the Falcons weren’t going to go without a fight and came out strong after halftime.
Using Gainesville’s aggressiveness against it, Flowery Branch began swinging quick screen passes out to the flanks, allowing its receivers to fight for yardage. With the Red Elephants unable to get to Shaw, the Falcons found their rhythm, going on an 80-yard drive to start the half. Imani Cross (9 rushes, 56 yards) capped the march with an 11-yard touchdown run to pull within 35-7.
The score ignited the Falcons sidelines and home crowd, and Flowery Branch’s defense responded, forcing Gainesville’s first punt of the night on their opening possession of the half.
Yet after marching again to the shadow of the Red Elephants’ goal posts on their next possession, the Falcons saw the drive end in a 37-yard field goal from Will Monday after the Gainesville defense sacked Shaw on third down.
The Red Elephants offense wouldn’t let that momentum continue.
Sims came up with a 47-yard run to set up his own 26-yard touchdown pass to Jones 1:29 left in the third quarter. The score put Gainesville up 42-10 and ensured a running clock for most of the fourth quarter.
“We answered, and that kind of sucked the life out of them,” Miller said.
By the time the Falcons scored again, on an 18-yard pass from Shaw to Rod Frazier, there was just 6:22 remaining in the game as they pulled within 42-17.
Frazier finished with 85 yards on four catches, while Darius Kimbrough led all Flowery Branch receivers with seven catches for 100 yards. Rodney Young also had seven catches for 91 yards.
Smith finished up the scoring on a 35-yard run with 4:10 remaining.
"This is incredible," Sprague said. "Words can't describe it."
-- SCORING SUMMARY
Gainesville...........14.......21........7.........7 -- 49
Fl. Branch..............0........0........10.........7 -- 17
First quarter
GHS – Sims 17 pass from Jones (Almand kick), 8:23, 7-0
GHS – Smith 10 run (Almand kick), 3:14, 14-0
Second quarter
GHS – Rucker 12 run (Almand kick), 21-0, 9:48
GHS – Smith 4 run (Almand kick), 28-0, 6:19
GHS – Jones 15 pass from Sims (Almand kick), 35-0, 2:10
Third quarter
FB – Cross 11 run (Thompson kick), 35-7, 9:38
FB – Monday 37 FG, 35-10, 3:32
GHS – Jones 26 pass from Sims (Almand kick), 42-10, 1:29
Fourth quarter
FB – Frazier 18 pass from Shaw (Thompson kick), 42-17, 6:22
GHS – Smith 35 run (Almand kick), 49-17, 4:10
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Posted: Saturday, November 7th 2009 at 2:02am
