By Steve Carter
After surviving tough quarterfinal matchups last Friday, the Fitzgerald Purple Hurricanes and the Irwin County Indians are one step closer to going to the Georgia Dome to vie for state football championships. However, the Jefferson County Warriors are waiting for Fitzgerald, while the ECI Bulldogs are on tap for the Indians this week in the state semifinals.
To qualify for the semifinals, the Hurricanes knocked off what was considered for most of the year the best team in the state Class AA rankings, the Benedictine School Cadets, 54-28.
Fitzgerald's JD King rushed for 332 yards and three touchdowns on 45 carries. Quarterback James Graham added 107 yards on the ground, as Fitzgerald overcame a 21-10 deficit.
On the last play of the game, Jefferson County's Evans Hodges booted a 31-yard field goal to give the Warriors a 31-28 quarterfinal win over Rabun County last Friday night.
The game-winning drive was for 72 yards and was aided by two Rabun County personal fouls.
Jefferson County appears to be a passing team as quarterback TJ Bell was 19-for-37 passing for 320 yards and three touchdowns in the game.. He also rushed for 52 more yards.
The Jefferson game will be Fitzgerald's second straight state semifinal trip, after falling to Greater Atlanta Christian at home last season. This is the first state semifinal appearance for Jefferson County, which formed from a merger of Louisville and Wrens in 1995.
Irwin County was outgained 195 to 175 yardage in its state quarterfinal contest by visiting Trion, but the Indians found other ways to win in a 21-0 victory.
The only scoring drive for Irwin came on the first drive of the second half as the Indians went 71 yards on 12 plays. The drive ended when quarterback Zach Tolar ran in from 12 yards out on a fourth and goal play.
Irwin's other two scores came on a 59-yard interception return for a touchdown by Cartavion Benyard in the first half, and another pick six from William Lewis in the second half, this one going for 67 yards.
DJ Pollard was held in check for most of the night, but did contribute 62 yards on 14 carries. Tolar added eight carries for 35 yards. He was also 3-for-5 passing for 27 yards. With all of the catches coming from Cyrus Johnson.
In Twin City Friday, ECI quarterback Rhett Gay threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Willie Johnson with 1.6 seconds left in the game as the Bulldogs went 64 yards in 90 seconds to garner a hard-fought 34-31 win over visiting Mount Zion (Carroll).
Gay ended the game going 13-for-20 passing for 135 yards and a pair of touchdowns. ECI's Ricky Lee, who came in the game with over 1,000 yards rushing, was held to 28 yards on 12 carries, but that was made up by Bobby McNear going for 107 on seven carries.
Mount Zion ended up with 343 yards rushing, 403 total, while ECI managed 345 total yards.
Irwin is in the state semifinals for the third straight year, losing on a last second blocked extra point to Charlton in 2013, and defeating Commerce last year. The Indians went on to fall 15-6 in the state championship game to Hawkinsivlle.
ECI is in the state semifinals for the first time since winning the state title in 2012.
The Irwin-ECI winner will face the Clinch County-Commerce victor for the state public school Class A championship Friday, December 11, at 1 p.m. at the Georgia Dome.
The Fitzgerald-Jefferson County victor will face the Greater Atlanta Christian-Pace Academy winner at 2 p.m. Saturday, December 12, at 2 p.m. at the Georgia Dome.
