While
Langston Hughes won its third consecutive game to move to 3-1,
Rockdale, which was trying to start 4-0 for the first time since 1987,
instead dropped to 3-1.
Langston
Hughes led just 6-0 at halftime, but immediately extended its lead. On
the first possession of the third quarter, the Region 3-AAAAAA Panthers
nearly turned the ball over on the kick off when the ball bounced hard
off the chest of up-back Sage Hicks, but Hicks recovered at the Rockdale
37.
It
took Langston Hughes eight plays to travel 63 yards, the key
conversions coming when Bingo Morton broke an initial tackle and made a
catch and run for 13 yards on third-and-ten, then caught an 18-yard pass
from quarterback Kinan Humphrey to the Rockdale six. Robert Saunders
took it in from six yards to put the hosts up 13-0.
Things unraveled for the Bulldogs shortly after that.
After
the teams traded punts, Rockdale had the ball on its own 21 before
quarterback Zuri Minnifield fumbled the first play from scrimmage and
Langston Hughes’ lineman Deonte Jackson scooped up the ball and rumbled
11 yards for the touchdown and a 20-0 lead.
Rockdale
went three-and-out and Devon Dawkins’ punt was blocked by Jocques Ross.
Two plays later, Humphrey and Morton hooked up again, this time for a
15-yard touchdown and just eight minutes 20 seconds into the second
half, Langston Hughes had a commanding, 27-0 cushion.
“We
had some kids banged up, we put some back up players in, (Langston
Hughes) took advantage of it. They got that punt blocked and they wanted
it more than we did,” said second-year Rockdale coach Venson Elder. “No
excuses.”
Both teams were coming off high-scoring games in week three but the defenses dominated the opening half.
Despite
trailing by six points at halftime, Rockdale’s defense pitched a shut
out. Langston Hughes, averaging nearly 29 points coming in, had just 118
total yards with 55 of the yards coming on the Panthers penultimate
drive of the half, which resulted in a turnover on downs after a fourth
down incompletion from the Rockdale 25.
Langston Hughes got into Rockdale territory on each of its final three possessions of the first half, but failed to score.
Rockdale’s offense was worse, collecting just 39 total yards in the first 24 minutes.
The
Bulldogs, coming off a 42-point effort in last week’s win over Drew,
got into Langston Hughes’ territory on two drives in the first half,
getting as close as the Panthers’ 37-yard line late in the first quarter
before Minnifield threw up a pass in traffic that was intercepted by
Hicks.
The
visitors also used a bad snap and weak punt by the Panthers to get to
the 45, but after three plays had to punt themselves with 7:18 left in
the half.
Langston Hughes got the only points of the half less than two minutes into the game.
Rockdale
went three-and-out on the opening possession of the game and was forced
to punt inside its own 35. Dawkins’ kick was fielded by Saunders and
though he looked to have little room to maneuver from his own 45,
Saunders exploded down the field for a 55-yard touchdown that gave the
Panthers a 6-0 advantage.
“We’re not getting down on punt coverage,” Elder said of Saunders’ return. “We’re just being lazy, they took advantage of it.”
Rockdale
intercepted backup quarterback Kenny Moxey on the first play of the
fourth quarter, but the Bulldogs’ offense, which gained 73 yards all
night, went backwards two yards and two plays after a punt, Emile Sexton
exploded through the middle and scored from 40 yards to make it a 34-0
game.
“I
don’t think (the loss is) a step back,” Elder said of his team, which
won three of its first four games for the first time since 2008. “As a
staff, we got to make better adjustments (as well), to get these kids in
position to make plays, together as a staff.”
Though
Langston Hughes is just a fifth-year program, it has already beaten
Region 2-AAAAAA Rockdale three times. The Panthers defeated the Conyers
school twice a season ago, including in the first round of the state
playoffs.
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