It’s just the opening weekend but North Cobb and Westlake gave everyone a taste of playoff caliber football, Friday night at the Lions’ Den in South Fulton.
In the end, North Cobb survived a slugfest that went down to the final seconds, taking a 21-17 win back to Kennesaw.
The Warriors (1-0), ranked No. 4 in Class 7A, outscored Westlake (0-1) 14-7 in the fourth quarter on the strength of two long touchdown drives, and then held the Lions – who had the ball inside the North Cobb 10-yard line with just under a minute to play –out of the end zone as the final seconds ticked away.
“Our offensive line kind of took over and was able to push them around a little bit late in the game, and then we converted some big fourth downs too and that was huge,” North Cobb head coach Shane Queen said. “We didn’t play well in the first half and were still only down by three. I told our guys to get their heads up and all we need to do is stop shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Westlake struck first as senior QB R.J. Johnson led a 12-play drive that started inside the Lions’ 20 yard line, after the defense forced a North Cobb punt on the Warriors’ first possession. Johnson capped the drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Jabari Jones down the near seam. Junior Omar Camara’s point after kick made it 7-0 midway through the first quarter.
North Cobb answered early in the second period on a 30-yard touchdown run by Michigan-bound senior RB Ben Hall. Senior Javy Morales’ PAT made it 7-7.
Westlake retook the lead, 10-7, midway through the quarter on a 25-yard field goal by Camara.
The Lions looked primed to add to their lead just before halftime when Raemon Moesby recovered a muffed punt at the North Cobb 34 yard line. Westlake chewed up 18 yards on three runs by seniors Avion Terrell, Jai’den Thomas, and Christian Wilson on the first three plays of the ensuing drive. But Warrior junior Grayson Hodges recovered a fumble on the fourth play to end the march.
The recovery gave North Cobb a chance to tie the game going into the break, as two Westlake penalties – a sideline violation for 15 yards and a 5-yard penalty for calling a timeout when the Lions did not have one left – helped the Warriors move to the Lions’ 16-yard line. But North Cobb dropped a potential touchdown pass and missed a 34-yard field goal as time expired.
The teams held each other scoreless in the third quarter, but that’s when North Cobb began a 15-play, 74-yard drive and made it pay off early in the fourth quarter when Hall bulled into the endzone from 4 yards out to put the Warriors on top, 14-10.
North Cobb converted two big fourth downs on the march, courtesy of two of their best players – Hall and senior Super 11 QB Malachi Singleton, who is committed to Arkansas. On fourth-and-four from Westlake’s 47-yard line, Hall darted over the right side for 19 yards. And on fourth-and-eight from the 26-yard line, Singleton threw a dart over the middle to senior Xavier Jackson, who snatched the ball out of the air and absorbed a big hit while making the catch.
Westlake answered quickly as junior Christian Patterson scooped up the ensuing kickoff inside of his 1-yard line and raced 70 yards down the far sideline to the North Cobb 30. Four plays later, Thomas powered in from 9 yards out to give the Lions the lead again, 17-14, midway through the fourth quarter.
That’s when the Warriors’ offensive line – Elvin De la Cruz, R.J. Grigsby, Blake Ellsworth, Marcell Felton, and Zach Addison -- took over on what would be their final drive of the night. North Cobb went 79 yards in 10 plays, with only one being a pass play (resulting in a pass interference call on Westlake), as all four of the Warriors’ backfield members touched the ball: Singleton, Hall, junior David Eziomume, and senior David Mbadinga, who sprinted 38 yards for a touchdown over the right side to put North Cobb ahead, 21-17 with 3:28 left to play.
But Westlake went out swinging as Patterson had another big kickoff return that was padded by a facemask penalty and set the Lions up at the North Cobb 35. It looked like the Warriors had ended the game when they tackled Thomas behind the line of scrimmage on fourth-and-three from the 17-yard line, but a facemask call gave the Lions a first-and-goal just inside the 10-yard line with 37 seconds left.
Westlake had burned all of its timeouts earlier in the half, and when a run by Thomas moved the ball to the North Cobb 6 yard line, Johnson attempted to spike the ball. But the officials ruled the ball slipped out of his hand and did not stop the clock. The Lions attempted to line up again and spike the ball to give themselves one final play, but the officials ruled that the clock had expired.
“I told our guys that the one thing I wanted to be able to say at the end of this game was that we played hard, and we did that,” said Westlake head coach Rico Zachary, in his first year back in high school football after spending time as a position coach at Kennesaw State. “We wore down a little bit at the end and there are a lot of things we did that we can correct. But this game was like a playoff game and I’m proud of how our guys competed.”
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