Quarterback Trevor Lovett, getting his first extended playing time of the season, threw two touchdown passes and ran for two scores to lead North Cobb to a 33-14 victory over Harrison in the teams' Region 3-7A opener Friday at Harrison’s Bruce Cobleigh Stadium.
Lovett, a senior who had been a starter for most of his first three seasons with the Warriors, was 15-of-21 passing for 261 yards and rushed for 91 yards on 17 carries. He got an opportunity this week to fill in for sophomore Malachi Singleton, the regular starter who was unavailable for the game.
“I love that kid because he’s a winner, he stuck in there with us and he loves this program,” North Cobb coach Shane Queen said. “He got an opportunity to make plays tonight, and he’s a Division I quarterback. We’ve got the luxury to have two of them. It makes it interesting for next week, because now Walton won’t know who to prepare for. I don’t know who’s going to play next week.”
North Cobb (5-1, 1-0) controlled all but a six-minute stretch of the second quarter in which Harrison scored both of its touchdowns and turned a 13-0 deficit into a 14-13 lead.
North Cobb took the early lead on Lovett’s two touchdown runs, a 3-yarder late in the first quarter and a 1-yarder on the Warriors' first possession of the second quarter.
However, two plays after North Cobb’s second score, Harrison’s Jay Ziglor scored on a 78-yard run to cut the lead to 13-7. North Cobb fumbled on the third play of its next possession, and Harrison took advantage with an 11-play, 54-yard drive that ended with a 6-yard touchdown run by Ziglor, giving the Hoyas their only lead of the night with 2:34 to play in the half.
North Cobb reclaimed the lead for good on Ben Moran’s 42-yard field goal with five seconds left in the half.
“[Harrison] had a great game plan,” Queen said. “They shortened the game in the first half, and it worked. In the second half, we just made a couple of plays, and I don’t feel like we made those plays in the first half. We had some guys running open. Trevor hadn’t played in a while, and we had some underthrown balls, but in the second half he made some great plays for us.”
North Cobb scored on its first three possessions of the second half to put the game away. The Warriors got a 38-yard field goal by Moran and a 57-yard touchdown reception by Christian Moss in the third quarter for a 26-14 lead, and Tray Curry caught a 19-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the fourth quarter for the final points of the night.
Moss finished with 170 receiving yards on nine catches.
“He is a kid that has developed in our program, busted his tail, gained 20 pounds in the last year and grew 3 inches,” Queen said of his senior wide receiver. “Somebody’s going to get a Division I football player, and I hope they watch this film tonight because he makes play after play after play. And if they came to watch him at practice, and they can’t [because of COVID-19], they would sign him that day because he’s a special player.”
Cam Cunningham added 85 rushing yards for the Warriors, who finished with 443 yards of total offense.
The loss added to what has been a disappointing season for Harrison (0-4, 0-1), which won the Class 6A championship in 2019 and moved up to 7A in the offseason. The Hoyas lost their first three games against Allatoona, North Forsyth and Hughes - which came into Friday’s games with a combined record of 14-2 - by a total of just 18 points, and then they went more than a month without playing a game because of COVID-19 concerns. Harrison’s most recent game had been against Hughes on Sept. 18.
North Cobb - 7-9-10-7 - 33
Harrison - 0-14-0-0 - 14
First quarter
N - Trevor Lovett 3 run (Ben Moran kick), 1:20
Second quarter
N - Lovett 1 run (pass failed), 9:42
H - Jay Ziglor 78 run (Christian Lowery kick), 8:48
H - Ziglor 6 run (Lowery kick), 2:34
N - Moran 42 field goal, 0:05
Third quarter
N - Moran 38 field goal, 10:04
N - Christian Moss 57 pass from Lovett (Moran kick), 6:14
Fourth quarter
N - Tray Curry 19 pass from Lovett (Moran kick), 11:21
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